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Darius. Frontispiece 



Bagseus Showing the Final Decrees. (See p. 93. ) 



ALTE/nUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY 



HISTORY 



OP 



DARIUS THE GREAT 



BY 

JACOB "ABBOTT 



WITH THIRTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS 



Copyright 1900 by Henry Altemus Company 
PHILADELPHIA 

HENRY ALTEAUJS COMPANY 



51294 






/>* 



Jj-ibipsuy of <JoT«f^«ss| 



| 'Vu lUtttfc HECLvEO 






3EP<|4 1900 

Copyrtght entry 

uv*~w copy. 

Delivered to 

O^OtR DIVISION, 

OCT 1 1900 

i i ■ i i »— — »~— ■ — — 4 



* 



CK 



L 0>o. 



TMP96-022883 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 


PAGE 


Cambyses 


. 7 


CHAPTER II. 




The End op Cambyses 


. 27 


CHAPTER IIT. 




Smerdis the Magian 


. 45 


CHAPTER IV. 




The Accession of Darius 


. G3 


CHAPTER V. 




The Provinces %. 


. 78 


CHAPTER VI. 




The Reconnoitering op Greece 


. 97 


CHAPTER VII. 




The Revolt op Babylon . 


. 115 


CHAPTER VIII. 




The Invasion op Scythia . 


. 133 


CHAPTER IX. 




The Retreat from Scythia 


. 151 


CHAPTER X. 




The Story op Histi^eus . 


. 169 


CHAPTER XI. 




The Invasion of Greece . 


. 187 


CHAPTER XII. 




The Death of Darius 


. 212 



(v) 




Darius, vi 



Bas-Relief from Perseopolis. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Bagaeus Showing the Final Decrees, 

Bas-relief from Perseopolis . 

View near Ispahan, formerly Ecbatane 

View in Persia .... 

Headpiece, Chapter I. . 

Psammenitns Before Carnlyyses 

Arms and Armor 

Headpiece, Chapter II. 

Persian Magians at their Sacred Rites, facing " 

Headpiece, Chapter III. 

Gobryas and the False Smerdis 

The Slaughter of the Magians 

Headpiece, Chapter IV. 

Map of the Persian Empire 

Ruins of a Persian Temple 

Headpiece, Chapter V. 

Ruins at Sardis . 

Headpiece, Chapter VI. 

View on the Coast of Samos 

On the Mediterranean Coast 

Headpiece, Chapter VII. 

The Babylonians Deriding Darius, 

Headpiece, Chapter VIII. 

The Ionian Fleet and the Persian Army, facing " 140 

Headpiece, Chapter IX " 151 

(vii) 



Frontispiece. 


page vi 


•• 


viii 


ti 


X 


u 


7 


facing " 


20 


u 


26 


a 


27 


facing " 


42 


u 


45 


facing " 


60 


a 


62 


u 


63 


facing " 


70 


u 


77 


u 


78 


facing " 


84 


a 


97 


facing " 


98 


a 


114 


u 


115 


facing " 


124 



133 



Vlll 



ILLUSTEATIONS. 



Tailpiece ..... 


page 168 


Headpiece, Chapter X. 


. « 169 


Map of the Grecian Empire 


facing « 172 


Headpiece, Chapter XI. 


. " 187 


The Battle of Marathon 


facing " 208 


Ruins of the Grecian Mound at Marathon . " 211 


Headpiece, Chapter XII. 


. " 212 


The Tomb of Darius the Great 


facing " 230 




Darhis, viii 



View in Ispahan, formerl}' Ecbatane. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



After his accession to the throne of Persia, 
Darius I., called The Great to distinguish him 
from Darius II. (Ochus) and Darius III. 
(Codomannus), for many years contended with 
revolts in all parts of his empire. The two 
revolts of Babylon were carried on with special 
obstinacy. These insurrections put down, 
Darius reorganized his empire, removed the 
seat of government to Susa, and pushed his con- 
quests to the Caucasus and the Indus. His 
attempted conquest of the Scythians was dis- 
astrous ; his first expedition against the Athen- 
ians miscarried through the loss of his fleet; 
and the second was decisively defeated at 
Marathon. 

His death occurred while his Egyptian de- 
pendencies were in revolt, and in the midst of 
preparations for a third descent upon the Athen- 
ians. He was a Persian by birth, and, bred in 
its faith, he made the religion of Zoroaster that 
of the state. Although at one time the abso- 
lute sovereign of nearly one-half of the world, 
Darius left behind him no record of great 
exploits or achievements. 

(be) 




Darius, x 



View in Persia. 




DARIUS THE GREAT. 



CHAPTER I. 



CAMBYSES. 

About five or six hundred years before 
Christ, almost the whole of the interior of 
Asia was united in one vast empire. The 
founder of this empire was Cyrus the Great. 
He was originally a Persian ; and the whole 
empire is often called the Persian monarchy, 
taking its name from its founder's native 
land. 

Cyrus was not contented with having an- 
nexed to his dominion all the civilized states 
of Asia. In the latter part of his life, he 
conceived the idea that there might possibly 
be some additional glory and power to be 
acquired in subduing certain half-savage re- 
gions in the north, beyond the Araxes. He 
accordingly raised an army, and set off on 
an expedition for this purpose, against a 
country which was governed by a barbarian 
queen named Tomyris. He met with a va- 
riety of adventures on this expedition, all of 

7 



8 DARIUS THE GREATS 

which are fully detailed in our history of 
Cyrus. There "is, however, only one occur- 
rence that it is necessary to allude to partic- 
ularly here. That one relates to a remark- 
able dream which he had one night, just 
after he had crossed the river. 

To explain properly the nature of this 
dream, it is necessary first to state that 
Cyrus had two sons. Their names were 
Cambyses and Smerdis. He had left them 
in Persia when he set out on his expedition 
across the Araxes. There was also a young 
man, then about twenty years of age, in one 
of his capitals, named Darius. He was the 
son of one of the nobles of Cyrus's court. 
His father's name was Hystaspes. Hys- 
taspes, besides being a noble of the court, 
was also, as almost all nobles were in those 
days, an officer of the army. He accom- 
panied Cyrus in his march into the ter- 
ritories of the barbarian queen, and was 
with him there, in camp, at the time when 
this narrative commences. 

Cyrus, it seems, felt some misgivings in re- 
spect to the result of his enterprise ; and, in 
order to ensure the tranquillity of his empire 
during his absence, and the secure transmis- 
sion of his power to his rightful successor in 
case he should never return, he established 
his son Cambyses as regent of his realms be- 
fore he crossed the Araxes, and delivered the 
government of the empire, with great for- 
mality, into his hands. This took place 
upon the frontier, just before the army 



CAMBYSES. 9 

passed the river. The mind of a father, 
under such circumstances, would naturally 
be occupied, in some degree, with thoughts 
relating to the arrangements which his son 
would make, and to the difficulties he would 
be likely to encounter in managing the mo- 
mentous concerns which had been committed 
to his charge. The mind of Cvrus was un- 
doubtedly so occupied, and this, probably, 
was the origin of the remarkable dream. 

His dream was, that Darius appeared to him 
in a vision, with vast wings growing from 
his shoulders. Darius stood, in the vision, 
on the confines of Europe and Asia, and his 
wings, expanded either way, overshadowed 
the whole known world. "When Cyrus awoke 
and reflected on this ominous dream, it 
seemed to him to portend some great danger 
to the future security of his empire. It ap- 
peared to denote that Darius was one day to 
bear sway over all the world. Perhaps he 
might be even then forming ambitious and 
treasonable designs. Cyrus immediately 
sent for Hystaspes, the father of Darius ; 
when he came to his tent, he commanded 
him to go back to Persia, and keep a strict 
watch over the conduct of his son until he 
himself should return. Hystaspes received 
this commission, and departed to execute 
it ; and Cyrus, somewhat relieved, perhaps, 
of his anxiety by this measure of precaution, 
went on with his army toward his place of 
destination. 

Cyrus never returned, He was killed in 



10 DARIUS THE GREAT, 

battle. It would seem that, though the im- 
port of the dream was ultimately fulfilled, 
Darius was not, at that time, meditating 
any schemes of obtaining possession of the 
throne, for he made no attempt to interfere 
with the regular transmission of the im- 
perial power from Cyrus to Cambyses his 
son. At any rate, it was so transmitted. 
The tidings of Cyrus's death came to the 
capital, and Cambyses, his son, reigned in 
his stead. 

The great event of the reign of Cambyses 
was a war with Egypt, which originated in 
the following very singular manner : 

It has been found, in all ages of the world, 
that there is some peculiar quality of the 
soil, or climate, or atmosphere of Egypt 
which tends to produce an inflammation of 
the eyes. The inhabitants themselves have 
at all times been very subject to this disease, 
and foreign armies marching into the coun- 
try are always very seriously affected by it. 
Thousands of soldiers in such armies are 
sometimes disabled from this cause, and 
many are made incurably blind. Now a 
country which produces a disease in its 
worst form and degree, will produce also, 
generally, the best physicians for that 
disease. At any rate, this was supposed to 
be the case in ancient times ; and according- 
ly, when any powerful potentate in those 
days was afflicted himself with ophthalmia, 
or had such a case in his family, Egypt was 
the country to send to for a physician. 



CAMBYSES. 11 

Now it happened that Cyrus himself, at 
one time in the course of his life, was at- 
tacked with this disease, and he despatched 
an ambassador to Amasis, who was then 
king of Egypt, asking him to send him a 
physician. Amasis, who, like all the other 
absolute sovereigns of those days, regarded 
his subjects as slaves that were in all respects 
entirely at his disposal, selected a physician 
of distinction from among the attendants 
about his court, and ordered him to repair 
to Persia. The physician was extremely 
reluctant to go. He had a wife and family, 
from whom he was very unwilling to be 
separated ; but the orders were imperative, 
and he must obey. He set out on the 
journey, therefore, but he secretly resolved 
to devise some mode of revenging himself 
on the king for the cruelty of sending him. 

He was well received by Cyrus, and, either 
by his skill as a physician, or from other 
causes, he acquired great influence at the 
Persian court. At last he contrived a mode 
of revenging himself on the Egyptian king 
for having exiled him from his native land. 
The king had a daughter, who was a lady 
of great beauty. Her father was very 
strongly attached to her. The physician 
recommended to Cyrus to send to Amasis 
and demand this daughter in marriage. As, 
however, Cyrus was already married, the 
Egyptian princess would, if she came, be his 
concubine rather than his wife, or, if con- 
sidered a wife, it could only be a secondary 



12 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

and subordinate place that she could occupy. 
The physician knew that, under these cir- 
cumstances, the King of Egypt would be 
extremely unwilling to send her to Cyrus, 
while he would yet scarcely dare to refuse ; 
and the hope of plunging him into extreme 
embarrassment and distress, by means of 
such a demand from so powerful a sovereign, 
was the motive which led the physician to 
recommend the measure. 

Cyrus was pleased with the proposal, and 
sent, accordingly, to make the demand. 
The king, as the physician had anticipated, 
could not endure to part with his daughter 
in such a way, nor did he, on the other 
hand, dare to incur the displeasure of so 
powerful a monarch by a direct and open 
refusal. He finally resolved upon escaping 
from the difficulty by a stratagem, 

There was a young and beautiful captive 
princess in his court named Nitetis. Her 
father, whose name was Apries, had been 
formerly the King of Egypt, but he had been 
dethroned and killed by Amasis. Since the 
downfall of her family, Mtetis had been a 
captive ; but, as she was very beautiful and 
very accomplished, Amasis conceived the 
design of sending her to Cyrus, under the 
pretense that she was the daughter whom 
Cyrus had demanded. He accordingly 
brought her forth, provided her with the 
most costly and splendid dresses, loaded her 
with presents, ordered a large retinue to 
attend her, and sent her forth to Persia. 



CAMBYSES. 13 

Cyrus was at first very much pleased with 
his new bride. Nitetis became, in fact, his 
principal favorite ; though, of course, his 
other wife, whose name was Cassandane, 
and her children, Cambyses and Smerdis, 
were jealous of her, and hated her. One 
day, a Persian lady was visiting at the court, 
and as she was standing near Cassandane, 
and saw her two sons, who were then tall 
and handsome young men, she expressed her 
admiration of them, and said to Cassandane, 
" How proud and happy you must be ! " 
" No," said Cassandane ; " on the contrary, 
I am very miserable ; for, though I am the 
mother of these children, the king neglects 
and despises me. All his kindness is be- 
stowed on this Egyptian woman." Cam- 
byses, who heard this conversation, sym- 
pathized deeply with Cassandane in her 
resentment. " Mother," said he, " be pa- 
tient, and I will avenge you. As soon as I 
am king, I will go to Egypt and turn the 
whole country upside down." 

In fact, the tendency which there was in 
the mind of Cambyses to look upon Egypt 
as the first field of war and conquest for 
him, so soon as he should succeed to the 
throne, was encouraged by the influence 
of his father; for Cyrus, although he was 
much captivated by the charms of the lady 
whom the King of Egypt had sent him, was 
greatly incensed against the king for having 
practised upon him such a deception. Be- 
sides, all the important countries in Asia 



14 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

were already included within the Persian 
dominions. It was plain that if any future 
progress were to be made in extending the 
empire, the regions of Europe and Africa 
must be the theater of it. Egypt seemed 
the most accessible and vulnerable point 
bevond the confines of Asia: and thus, 

" 7 7 

though Cyrus himself, being advanced some- 
what in years, and interested, moreover, in 
other projects, was not prepared to under- 
take an enterprise into Africa himself, he 
was very willing that such plans should be 
cherished by his son. 

Cambyses was an ardent, impetuous, and 
self-willed boy, such as the sons of rich, and 
powerful men are very apt to become. They 
imbibe, by a sort of sympathy, the ambitious 
and aspiring spirit of their fathers ; and as all 
their childish caprices and passions are gen- 
erally indulged, they never learn to submit to 
control. They become vain, self-conceited, 
reckless, and cruel. The conqueror who 
founds an empire, although even his character 
generally deteriorates very seriousl} 7 toward 
the close of his career, still usually knows 
something of moderation and generosity. 
His son, however, who inherits his father's 
power, seldom inherits the virtues by which 
the power was acquired. These truths, 
which we see continually exemplified all 
around us, on a small scale, in the families 
of the wealthy and the powerful, were illus- 
trated most conspicuously in the view of all 
mankind, in the case of Cyrus and Camby- 



CAMBYSES. 15 

ses. The father was prudent, cautious, wise, 
and often generous and forbearing. The 
son grew up headstrong, impetuous, un- 
controlled, and uncontrollable. lie had the 
most lofty ideas of his own greatness and 
power, and he felt a supreme contempt for the 
rights, and indifference to the happiness of 
all the world besides. His history gives us 
an illustration of the worst which the prin- 
ciple of hereditary sovereignty can do, as 
the best is exemplified in the case of Alfred 
of England. 

Cambyses, immediately after his father's 
death, began to make arrangements for the 
Egyptian invasion. The first thing to be de- 
termined was the mode of transporting his 
armies thither. Egypt is a long and narrow 
valley, with the rocks and deserts of Arabia 
on one side, and those of Sahara on the other. 
There is no convenient mode of access to 
it except by sea, and Camltyses had no naval 
force sufficient for a maritime expedition. 

While he was. revolving the subject in his 
mind, there arrived in his capital of Susa, 
where he was then residing, a deserter from 
the army of Amasis in Egypt. The name of 
this deserter was Phanes. He was a Greek, 
having been the commander of a body of 
Greek troops who were employed by Amasis 
as auxiliaries in his army. He had had a 
quarrel with Amasis, and had fled to Persia, 
intending to join Cambyses in the expdition 
which he was contemplating, in order to re- 
venge himself on the Egyptian king. Phanes 



16 DABITTS THE GREAT. 

said, in telling his story, that he had had a 
very narrow escape from Egypt ; for as soon 
as Amasis had heard that he had fled, he 
despatched one of his swiftest vessels, a gal- 
ley of three banks of oars, in hot pursuit of 
the fugitives. The galley overtook the ves- 
sel in which Phanes had taken passage just 
as it was landing in Asia Minor. The 
Egyptian officers seized it and made Phanes 
prisoner. They immediately began to make 
their preparations for the return voyage, 
putting Phanes, in the mean time, under the 
charge of guards, who were instructed to 
keep him very safely. Phanes, however, 
cultivated a good understanding with his 
guards, and presently invited them to drink 
wine with him. In the end, he got them 
intoxicated, and while they were in that state 
he made his escape from them, and then, 
traveling with great secrecy and caution un- 
til he was beyond their reach, he succeeded 
in making his way to Cambyses in Susa. 

Phanes gave Cambyses a great deal of 
information in respect to the geography of 
Egypt, the proper points of attack, the 
character and resources of the king, and 
communicated, likewise, a great many other 
particulars which it was very important that 
Cambyses should know. He recommended 
that Cambyses should proceed to Egypt by 
land, through Arabia ; and that, in order to 
secure a safe passage, he should send first to 
the King of the Arabs, by a formal embassy, 
asking permission to cross his territories 



CAMBYSES. 17 

with an army, and engaging the Arabians to 
aid him, if possible, in the transit. Cambyses 
did this. The Arabs were very willing to 
join in any projected hostilities against the 
Egyptians ; they offered Cambyses a free 
passage, and agreed to aid his army on their 
march. To the faithful fulfilment of these 
stipulations the Arab chief bound himself by 
a treaty, executed with the most solemn 
forms and ceremonies. 

The great difficulty to be encountered in 
traversing the desert which Cambyses would 
have to cross on his way to Egypt was the 
want of water. To provide for this necessity, 
the King of the Arabs sent a vast number of 
camels into the desert, laden with great sacks 
or bags full of water. These camels were 
sent forward just before the army of Cam- 
byses came on, and they deposited their sup- 
plies along the route at the points where 
they would be most needed. Herodotus, the 
Greek traveler, who made a journey into 
Egypt not a great many years after these 
transactions, and who wrote subsequently a 
full description of what he saw and heard 
there, gives an account of another method 
by which the Arab king was said to have 
conveyed water into the desert, and that was 
by a canal or pipe, made of the skins of oxen, 
which he laid along the ground, from a cer- 
tain river of his dominions, to a distance of 
twelve days' journey over the sands ! This 
story Herodotus says he did not believe, 
though elsewhere in the course of his history 

2— Darius 



18 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

he gravely relates, as true history, a thou 
sand tales infinitely more improbable than 
the idea of a leathern pipe or hose like this 
to serve for a conduit of water. 

By some means or other, at all events, the 
Arab chief provided supplies of water in the 
desert for Cambyses's army, and the troops 
made the passage safely. They arrived, at 
length, on the frontiers of Egypt.* Here 
they found that Amasis, the king, was dead, 
and Psammenitus, his son, had succeeded 
him. Psammenitus came forward to meet 
the invaders. A great battle was fought. 
The Egyptians were routed. Psammenitus 
fled up the Nile to the city of Memphis, 
taking with him such broken remnants of 
his army as he could get together after the 
battle, and feeling extremely incensed and 
exasperated against the invader. In fact, 
Cambyses had now no excuse or pretext 
whatever for waging such a war against 
Egypt. The monarch who had deceived his 
father was dead, and there had never been 
any cause of complaint against his son, or 
against the Egyptian people. Psammenitus, 
therefore, regarded the invasion of Egypt by 
Cambyses as a wanton and wholly unjustifi- 
able aggression, and he determined, in his 
own mind, that such invaders deserved no 
mercy, and that he would show them none. 
Soon after this, a galley on the river, belong- 

* For the places mentioned in this chapter, and the 
track of Cambyses on his expedition, see the map 
facing page 70. 



CAMBYSES. 19 

ing to Cambyses, containing a crew of two 
hundred men, fell into his hands. The Egy 1 1 
tians, in their rage, tore these Persians all to 
pieces. This exasperated Cambyses in his 
turn, and the war went on, attended by the 
most atrocious cruelties on both sides. 

In fact, Cambyses, in this Egyptian cam- 
paign, pursued such a career of inhuman and 
reckless folly, that people at last considered 
him insane. He began with some small sem- 
blance of moderation, but he proceeded, in 
the end, to the perpetration of the most ter- 
rible excesses of violence and wrong. 

As to his moderation, his treatment of 
Psammenitus personally is almost the only 
instance that we can record. In the course 
of the war, Psammenitus and all his family 
fell into Cambyses's hands as captives. A 
few days afterward, Cambyses conducted the 
unhappy king without the gates of the city 
to exhibit a spectacle to him. The spectacle 
was that of his beloved daughter, clothed in 
the garments of a slave, and attended by a 
company of other maidens, the daughters of 
the nobles and other persons of distinction 
belonging to his court, all going down to 
the river, with heavy jugs, to draw water. 
The fathers of all these hapless maidens had 
been brought out with Psammenitus to wit- 
ness the degradation and misery of their 
children. The maidens cried and sobbed 
aloud as they went along, overwhelmed with 
shame and terror. Their fathers manifested 
the utmost agitation and distress. Cambyses 



20 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

stood smiling by, highly enjoying the spec- 
tacle. Psammenitus alone appeared un- 
moved. He gazed on the scene silent, motion- 
less, and with a countenance which indicated 
no active suffering ; he seemed to be in a 
state of stupefaction and despair. Cambyses 
was disappointed, and his pleasure was 
marred at finding that his victim did not 
feel more acutely the sting of the torment 
with which he was endeavoring to goad him. 
When this train had gone by, another 
came. It was a company of young men, 
with halters about their necks, going to 
execution. Cambyses had ordered that for 
every one of the crew of his galley that the 
Egyptians had killed, ten Egyptians should 
be executed. This proportion would require 
two thousand victims, as there had been two 
hundred in the crew. These victims were 
to be selected from among the sons of the 
leading families ; and their parents, after 
having seen their delicate and gentle 
daughters go to their servile toil, were now 
next to behold their sons march in a long 
and terrible array to execution. The son of 
Psammenitus was at the head of the column. 
The Egyptian parents who stood around 
Psammenitus wept and lamented aloud, as 
one after another saw his own child in the 
train. Psammenitus himself, however, re- 
mained as silent and motionless, and with a 
countenance as vacant as before. Cambyses 
was again disappointed. The pleasure which 
the exhibition afforded him was incomplete 




Darius, /are p. -JO 



Psammenitua Before Oambyses. 



CAMBY8E8. 21 

without visible manifestations of suffering 1 in 
the victim for whose torture it was principally 
designed. 

After this train of captives had passed, 
there came a mixed collection of wretched 
and miserable men, such as the siege and 
sacking of a city always produces in count- 
less numbers. Among these was a vener- 
able man whom Psammentus recognized as 
one of his friends. He had been a man of 
wealth and high station ; he had often been 
at the court of the king, and had been en- 
tertained at his table. lie was now, how- 
ever, reduced to the last extremity of dis- 
tress, and was begging of the people some- 
thing to keep him from starving. The sight 
of this man in such a condition seemed to 
awaken the king from his blank and death- 
like despair, lie called his old friend by 
name in a tone of astonishment and pity, 
and burst into tears. 

Cambyses, observing this, sent a messenger 
to Psammenitus to inquire what it meant. 
" He wishes to know," said the messenger, 
"how it happens that you could see your 
own daughter set at work as a slave, and 
your son led away to execution unmoved, 
and yet feel so much commiseration for the 
misfortunes of a stranger." We might sup- 
pose that any one possessing the ordinary 
susceptibilities of the human soul would have 
understood without an explanation the 
meaning* of this, though it is not surprising 
that such a heartless monster as Cambyses 



22 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

did not comprehend it. Psammenitus sent 
him word that he could not help weeping 
for his friend, but that his distress and an- 
guish on account of his children were too 
great for tears. 

The Persians who were around Cambjses 
began now to feel a strong sentiment of com- 
passion for the unhappy king, and to inter- 
cede with Cambyses in his favor. They 
begged him, too, to spare Psammenitus's 
son. It will interest those of our readers 
who have perused our history of Cyrus to 
know that Croesus, the captive king of Lydia, 
whom they will recollect to have been com- 
mitted to Cambyses's charge by his father, 
just before the close of his life, when he was 
setting forth on his last fatal expedition, 
and who accompanied Cambyses on this in- 
vasion of Egypt, was present on this occa- 
sion, and was one of the most earnest inter- 
ceders in Psammenitus's favor. Cambyses 
allowed himself to be persuaded. They 
sent oif a messenger to order the execution 
of the king's son to be stayed ; but he arrived 
too late. The unhappy prince had already 
fallen. Cambyses was so far appeased by 
the influence of these facts, that he abstained 
from doing Psammenitus or his family any 
further injury. 

He, however, advanced up the Nile, ravag- 
ing and plundering the country as he went 
on, and at length, in the course of his con- 
quests, he gained possession of the tomb in 
which the embalmed body of Amasis was 



GAMBYSES. 28 

deposited. He ordered this body to be 
taken out of its sarcophagus, and treated 
with every mark of ignominy. His soldiers, 
by his orders, beat it with rods, as if it 
could still feel, and goaded it, and cut it 
with swords. They pulled the hair out of 
the head by the roots, and loaded the life- 
less form with every conceivable mark of 
insult and ignominy. Finally, Cambyses 
ordered the mutilated remains that were 
left to be burned, which was a procedure 
as abhorrent to the ideas and feelings of 
the Egyptians as could possibly be devised. 

Cambyses took every opportunity to in- 
sult the religious, or as, perhaps, we ought 
to call them, the superstitious feelings of 
the Egyptians. He broke into their temples, 
desecrated their altars, and subjected every- 
thing which they held most sacred to ins alt 
and ignominy. Among their objects of 
religious veneration was the sacred bull 
called Apis. This animal was selected 
from time to time, from the country at 
large, by the priests, by means of certain 
marks which they pretended to discover 
upon its body, and which indicated a divine 
and sacred character. The sacred bull thus 
found was kept in a magnificent temple, 
and attended and fed in a most sumptuous 
manner. In serving him, the attendants 
used vessels of gold. 

Cambyses arrived at the city where Apis 
was kept at a time when the priests were 
celebrating some sacred occasion with festiv- 



24 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

ities and rejoicings. He was himself then 
returning from an unsuccessful expedition 
which he had made, and, as he entered the 
town, stung with vexation and anger at his 
defeat, the gladness and joy which the 
Egyptians manifested in their ceremonies 
served only to irritate him, and to make 
him more angry than ever. He killed the 
priests who were officiating. He then de- 
manded to be taken into the edifice to see 
the sacred animal, and there, after insulting 
the feelings of the worshipers in every pos- 
sible way by ridicule and scornful words, 
he stabbed the innocent bull with his dag- 
ger. The animal, died of the wound, and 
the whole country was filled with horror 
and indignation. The people believed that 
this deed would most assuredly bring down 
upon the impious perpetrator of it the judg- 
ments of heaven. 

Cambyses organized, while he was in 
Egypt, several mad expeditions into the sur- 
rounding countries. In a fit of passion, pro- 
duced by an unsatisfactory answer to an em- 
bassage, he set off suddenly, and without any 
proper preparation, to march into Ethiopia. 
The provisions of his army were exhausted 
before he had performed a fifth part of the 
march. Still, in his infatuation, he deter- 
mined to go on. The soldiers subsisted for 
a time on such vegetables as they could 
find by the way ; when these failed, they 
slaughtered and ate their beasts of burden ; 
and finally, in the extremity of their 



CAMBYSES. 25 

famine, they began to kill and devour one 
another; then, at length, Cambyses con- 
cluded to return. He sent off, too, at one 
time, a large army across the desert toward 
the Temple of Jupiter Amnion, without 
any of the necessary precautions lor such a 
march. This army never reached their des- 
tination, and they never returned. The 
people of the Oasis said that they were over- 
taken by a sand storm in the desert, and 
were all overwhelmed. 

There was a certain officer in attendance 
on Cambyses named Prexaspes. He was a 
sort of confidential friend and companion of 
the king ; and his son, who was a fair, and 
graceful, and accomplished youth, was the 
king's cup-bearer, which was an office of 
great consideration and honor. One day 
Cambyses asked Prexaspes what the Per- 
sians generally thought of him. Prexaspes 
replied that they thought and spoke Avell of 
him in all respects but one. The king wished 
to know what the exception was. Prex- 
aspes rejoined, that it was the general 
opinion that he was too much addicted to 
wine. Cambyses was offended at this re- 
ply ; and, under the influence of the feeling, 
so wholly unreasonable and absurd, which 
so often leads men to be angry with the in- 
nocent medium through which there comes 
to them any communication which they do 
not like, he* determined to punish Prexaspes 
for his freedom. He ordered his son, there- 
fore, the cup-bearer, to take his place 



26 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

against the wall on the other side of the 
room. " Now," said he, " I will put what 
the Persians say to the test." As he said 
this, he took up a bow and arrow which 
were at his side, and began to lit the arrow 
to the string. "If," said he, "I do not 
shoot him exactly through the heart, it shall 
prove that the Persians are right. If I do, 
then they are wrong, as it will show that I 
do not drink so much as to make my hand 
unsteady." So saying, he drew the bow ; 
the arrow flew through the air, and pierced 
the poor boy's breast. He fell and Cam- 
byses coolly ordered the attendants to open 
the body, and let Prexaspes see whether the 
arrow had not gone through the heart. 

These, and a constant succession of similar 
acts of atrocious and reckless cruelty and 
folly, led the world to say that Cambyses 
was insane. 





CHAPTER II. 

THE END OF CAMBYSES. 

Among- the other acts of profligate wicked- 
ness which have blackened indelibly and 
forever Cambyses's name, he married two 
of his own sisters, and brought one of them 
with him to Eg}^pt as his wife. The natural 
instincts of all men, except those whose 
early life has been given up to the most 
shameless and dissolute habits of vice, are 
sufficient to preserve them from such crimes 
as these. Cambyses himself felt, it seems, 
some misgivings when contemplating the 
first of these marriages ; and he sent to a 
certain council of judges, whose province it 
was to interpret the laws, asking them their 
opinion of the rightfulness of such a mar- 
riage. Kings ask the opinion of their legal 
advisers in such cases, not because they 
really Avish to know whether the act in 
question is right or wrong, but because, 
Having themselves determined upon the per- 
formance of it, they wish their counselors 
to give it a sort of legal sanction, in order 
to justify the deed, and diminish the popular 
odium which it might otherwise incur. 



28 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

The Persian judges whom Cambyses con- 
sulted on this occasion understood very well 
what was expected of them. After a grave 
deliberation, they returned answer to the 
king that, though they could find no law 
allowing a man to marry his sister, they 
found many which authorized a king of 
Persia to do whatever he thought best. 
Cambyses accordingly carried his plans into 
execution. He married first the older sister, 
whose name was Atossa. Atossa became 
subsequently a personage of great historical 
distinction. The daughter of Cyrus, the 
wife of Darius, and the mother of Xerxes, 
she was the link that bound together the 
three most magnificent potentates of the 
whole Eastern world. How far these sisters 
were willing participators in the guilt of 
their incestuous marriages we cannot now 
know. The one who went with Cambyses 
into Egypt was of a humane, and gentle, 
and timid disposition, being in these respects 
wholly unlike her brother ; and it may be 
that she merely yielded, in the transaction 
of her marriage, to her brother's arbitrary 
and imperious will. 

Besides this sister, Cambyses had brought 
his brother Smerdis with him into Egypt. 
Smerdis was younger than Cambyses, but 
he was superior to him in strength and 
personal accomplishments. Cambyses was 
very jealous of this superiority. He did 
not dare to Jeave his brother in Persia, to 
manage the government in his stead during 



THE END OF CAMBYSES. 29 

his absence, lest he should take advantage 
of the temporary power thus committed to 
his hands, and usurp the throne altogether. 
He decided, therefore, to bring Smerdis with 
him into Egypt, and to leave the govern- 
ment of the state in the hands of a regency 
composed of two magi. These magi were 
public officers of distinction, but, having no 
hereditary claims to the crown, Cambyses 
thought there would be little danger of their 
attempting to usurp it. It happened, how- 
ever, that the name of one of these magi 
was Smerdis. This coincidence between the 
magian's name and that of the prince led, 
in the end, as will presently be seen, to very 
important consequences. 

The uneasiness and jealousy which Cam- 
byses felt in respect to his brother was not 
wholly allayed by the arrangement which 
he thus made for keeping him in his army, 
and so under his own personal observation 
and command. Smerdis evinced, on various 
occasions, so much strength and skill, that 
Cambyses feared his influence among the 
officers and soldiers, and was rendered con- 
tinually watchful, suspicious, and afraid. A 
circumstance at last occurred which excited 
his jealousy more than ever, and he deter- 
mined to send Smerdis home again to Persia. 
The circumstance was this : 

After Cambyses had succeeded in obtain- 
ing full possession of Egypt, he formed, 
among his other wild and desperate schemes, 
the design of invading the territories of a 



30 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

nation of Ethiopians who lived in the in- 
terior of Africa, around and beyond the 
sources of the Nile. The Ethiopians were 
celebrated for their savage strength and 
bravery. Cambyses wished to obtain in- 
formation respecting them and their coun- 
try before setting out on his expedition 
against them, and he determined to send 
spies into their country to obtain it. But, 
as Ethiopia was a territory so remote, and 
as its institutions and customs, and the lan- 
guage, the dress, and the manners of its in- 
habitants were totally different from those 
of all the other nations of the earth, and 
were almost wholly unknown to the Persian 
army, it was impossible to send Persians in 
disguise, w T ith any hope that they could en- 
ter and explore the country without being 
discovered. It was very doubtful, in fact, 
whether, if such spies were to be sent, they 
could succeed in reaching Ethiopia at all. 

Now there was, far up the Nile, near the 
cataracts, at a place where the river widens 
and forms a sort of bay, a large and fertile 
island called Elephantine, which was inhab- 
ited by a half-savage tribe called the Icthy- 
ophagi. They lived mainly by fishing on 
the river, and, consequently, they had many 
boats, and were accustomed to make long 
excursions up and down the stream. Their 
name was, in fact, derived from their oc- 
cupation. It was a Greek word, and might 
be translated " Fishermen." * The manners 
* Literally, fish^eaters. 



THE END OF OAMBYSES. 31 

and customs of half-civilized or savage na- 
tions depend entirely, of course, upon the 
modes in which they procure their subsist- 
ence. Some depend on hunting wild beasts, 
some on rearing flocks and herds of tame 
animals, some on cultivating the ground, 
and some on fishing in rivers or in the sea. 
These four different modes of procuring food 
result in as many totally diverse modes of 
life : it is a curious fact, however, that while 
a nation of hunters differs very essentially 
from a nation of herdsmen or of fishermen, 
though they may live, perhaps, in the same 
neighborhood with them, still, all nations of 
hunters, however widely they may be sepa- 
rated in geographical position, very strongly 
resemble one another in character, in customs 
in institutions, and in all the usages of life. 
It is so, moreover, with all the other types 
of national constitution mentioned above. 
The Greeks observed these characteristics 
of the various savage tribes with which they 
became acquainted, and whenever they met 
with a tribe that lived by fishing/ they 
called them Icthj^ophagi. 

Cambyses sent to the Icthyophagi of the 
island of Elephantine, requiring them to 
furnish him with a number of persons ac- 
quainted with the route to Ethiopia and with 
the Ethiopian language, that he might send 
them as an embassy. t He also provided some 
presents to be sent as a token of friendship 
to the Ethiopian king. The presents were, 
however, only a pretext, to enable the am- 

O— Darius 



32 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

bassadors, who were, in fact, spies, to go to 
the capital and court of the Ethiopian mon- 
arch in safety, and bring back to Cambyses 
all the information which they should be 
able to obtain. 

The presents consisted of such toys and 
ornaments as they thought would most please 
the fancy of a savage king. There were 
some purple vestments of a very rich and 
splendid dye, and a golden chain for the neck, 
golden bracelets for the wrists, an alabaster 
box of very precious perfumes, and other 
similar trinkets and toys. There was also 
a large vessel filled with wine. 

The Icthyophagi took these presents, and 
set out on their expedition. After a long 
and toilsome voyage and journey, they came 
to the country of the Ethiopians, and deliv- 
ered their presents, together with the message 
which Cambyses had intrusted to them. The 
presents, they said, had been sent by Cam- 
byses as a token of his desire to become the 
friend and ally of the Ethiopian king. 

The king, instead of being deceived by this 
hypocrisy, detected the imposture at once. 
He knew very well, he said, what was the 
motive of Cambyses in sending such an em- 
bassage to him, and he should advise Cam- 
byses to be content with his own dominions, 
instead of planning aggressions of violence, 
and schemes and stratagems of deceit against 
his neighbors, in order to get possession of 
theirs. He then began to look at the presents 
which the ambassadors had brought, which ? 



THE END OF CAMBYSES. 33 

however, he appeared very soon to despise. 
The purple vest first attracted his attention. 
He asked whether that was the true, natural 
color of the stuff, or a false one. The mes- 
sengers told him that the linen was dyed, 
and began to explain the process to him. 
The mind of the savage potentate, however, 
instead of being impressed, as the messengers 
supposed he would have been through their 
description, with a high idea of the excellence 
and superiority of Persian art, only despised 
the false show of what he considered an 
artificial and fictitious beauty. " The beauty 
of Cambyses's dresses," said he, "is as de- 
ceitful, it seems, as the fair show of his pro- 
fessions of friendship." As to the golden 
bracelets and necklaces, the king looked upon 
them with contempt. He thought that they 
were intended for fetters and chains, and 
said that, however well they might answer 
among the effeminate Persians, they were 
wholly insufficient to confine such sinews as 
he had to deal with. The wine, however, 
he liked. He drank it with great pleasure, 
and told the Icthyophagi that it was the only 
article among all their presents that was 
worth receiving. 

In return for the presents which Cam- 
byses had sent him, the King of the Ethio- 
pians, who was a man of prodigious size and 
strength, took down his bow and gave it to 
the Icthyophagi, telling them to carry it to 
Cambyses as a token of his defiance, and to 
ask him to see if he could find a man in all 



34 DAEIUS THE GREAT. 

his army who could bend it. "Tell Oam- 
byses," he added, " that when his soldiers 
are able to bend such bows as that, it will be 
time for him to think of invading the terri- 
tories of the Ethiopians ; and that, in the 
mean time, he ought to consider himself very 
fortunate that the Ethiopians were not 
grasping and ambitious enough to attempt 
the invasion of his." 

When the Icthyophagi returned to Cam- 
byses with this message, the strongest men 
in the Persian camp were of course greatly 
interested in examining and trying the bow. 
Smerdis was the only one that could be found 
who was strong enough to bend it ; and he, 
by the superiority to the others which he 
thus evinced, gained great renown. Cam- 
byses was filled with jealousy and anger. 
He determined to send Smerdis back again 
to Persia. " It will be better," thought he to 
himself, " to incur whatever danger there 
may be of his exciting a revolt at home, than 
to have him present in my court, subjecting 
me to continual mortification and chagrin by 
the perpetual parade of his superiority." 

His mind was, however, not at ease after 
his brother had gone. Jealousy and suspi- 
cion in respect to Smerdis perplexed his wak- 
ing thoughts and troubled his dreams. At 
length, one night, he thought he saw Smerdis 
seated on a royal throne in Persia, his form 
expanded supernaturally to such a prodigious 
size that he touched the heavens with his 
head. The next day, Cambyses, supposing 



THE END OF CAMBYSES. 35 

that the dream portended danger that Smerdis 
would be one day in possession of the throne, 
determined to put a final and perpetual end 
to all these troubles and fears, and he s<-nt 
for an officer of his court, Prexaspes — the 
same whose son he shot through the heart 
with an arrow, as described in the last chap- 
ter — and commanded him to proceed immedi- 
ately to Persia, and there to find Smerdis, 
and kill him. The murderer of Prexaspes's 
son, though related in the last chapter as an 
illustration of Cambyses's character, did not 
actually take place till after Prexaspes re- 
turned from this expedition. 

Prexaspes went to Persia, and executed 
the orders of the king by the assassination 
of Smerdis. There are different accounts of 
the mode which he adopted for accomplish- 
ing his purpose. One is, that he contrived 
some way to drown him in the sea ; another, 
that he poisoned him ; and a third, that he 
killed him in the forests, when he was out on 
a hunting excursion. At all events, the deed 
was done, and Prexaspes went back to Cam- 
byses, and reported to him that he had 
nothing further to fear from his brother's 
ambition. 

In the mean time, Cambyses went on from 
bad to worse in his government, growing 
every day more despotic and tyrannical, and 
abandoning himself to fits of" passion and 
cruelty which became more and more ex- 
cessive and insane. At one time, on some 
slight provocation, he ordered twelve dis- 



36 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

tinguished noblemen of his court to be buried 
alive. It is astonishing that there can be 
institutions and arrangements in the social 
state which will give one man such an ascend- 
ency over others that such commands can 
be obeyed. On another occasion, Camby- 
ses's sister and wife, who had mourned the 
death of her brother Smerdis, ventured a re- 
proach to Cambyses for having destroyed 
him. She was sitting at table, with some 
plant or flower in her hand, which she slow- 
ly picked to pieces, putting the fragments 
on the table. She asked Cambyses whether 
he thought the flower looked fairest and 
best in fragments, or in its original and 
natural integrity. " It looked best, certain- 
ly," Cambyses said, " when it was whole." 
" And yet," said she, " you have begun to 
take to pieces and destroy our family, as 
I have destroyed this flower." Cambyses 
sprang upon his unhappy sister, on hearing 
this reproof, with the ferocity of a tiger. He 
threw her down and leaped upon her. The 
attendants succeeded in rescuing her and 
bearing her away ; but she had received a 
fatal injury. She fell immediately into a 
premature and unnatural sickness, and died. 
These fits of sudden and terrible passion 
to which Cambyses was subject, were often 
followed, when they had passed by, as is 
usual in such cases, with remorse and misery ; 
and sometimes the officers of Cambyses, an- 
ticipating a change in their master's feelings, 
did not execute his cruel orders, but concealed 



THE END OF CAMBYSES. 37 

the object of his blind and insensate venge- 
ance until the paroxysm was over. They did 
this once in the case of Croesus. Croesus, who 
was now a venerable man, advanced in years, 
had been for along time the friend and faith- 
ful counselor of bambyses's father. He had 
known Cambyses himself from his boyhood, 
and had been charged by his father to watch 
over him and counsel him, and aid him, on 
all occasions which might require it, with 
his experience and wisdom. Cambyses, too, 
had been solemnly charged by his father 
Cyrus, at the last interview that he had with 
him before his death, to guard and protect 
Croesus, as his father's ancient and faithful 
friend, and to treat him, as long as he lived, 
with the highest consideration and honor. 

Under these circumstances, Croesus consid- 
ered himself justified in remonstrating one 
day with Cambyses against his excesses and 
his cruelty. He told him. that he ought not 
to give himself up to the control of such 
violent and impetuous passions ; that, though 
his Persian soldiers and subjects had borne 
with him thus far, he might, by excessive 
opposition and cruelty, exhaust their for- 
bearance, and provoke them to revolt against 
him, and that thus he might suddenly Lose 
his power, through his intemperate and in- 
considerate use of it. Croesus apologized for 
offering these counsels, saying that he felt 
bound to warn Cambyses of his danger, in 
obedience to the injunctions of Cyrus, his 
father. 



38 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

Cambyses fell into a violent passion at 
hearing these words. He told Croesus that 
he was amazed at his presumption in daring 
to offer him advice, and then began to load 
his venerable counselor with the bitterest 
invectives and reproaches. He taunted him 
with his own misfortunes, in losing, as he 
had done, years before, his own kingdom of 
Lydia, and then accused him of having been 
the means, through his foolish counsels, of 
leading his father, Cyrus, into the worst of 
the difficulties which" befell him toward the 
close of his life. At last, becoming more 
and more enraged by the reaction upon 
himself of his own angry utterance, he told 
Croesus that he had hated him for a long 
time, and for a long time had wished to pun- 
ish him ; " and now," said he, " you have given 
me an opportunity." So saying, he seized 
his bow, and began to fit an arrow to the 
string. Croesus fled. Cambyses ordered his 
attendants to pursue him, to kill him. The 
officers knew that Cambyses would regret 
his rash and reckless command as soon as 
his anger should have subsided, and so, in- 
stead of slaying Croesus, they concealed him. 
A few days after, when the tyrant began to 
express his remorse and sorrow at having 
destroyed his venerable friend in the heat of 
passion, and to mourn his death, they told 
him that Croesus was still alive. They had 
ventured, they said, to save him, till they 
could ascertain whether it was the king's 
real and deliberate determination that he 



THE END OF CAMBYSES. 39 

must die. The king was overjoyed to find 
Croesus still alive, bat he would not forgive 
those who had been instrumental in saving 
hira. lie ordered every one of them to be 
executed. 

Cambyses was the more reckless and des- 
perate in these tyrannical cruelties because he 
believed that he possessed a sort of charmed 
life. He had consulted an oracle, it seems, 
in Media, in respect to his prospects of life, 
and the oracle had informed him that he 
would die at Ecbatane. Now Ecbatane was 
one of the three great capitals of his empire, 
Susa and Babylon being the others. Ecba- 
tane was the most northerly of these cities, 
and the most remote from danger. Babylon 
and Susa were the points where the great 
transactions of government chiefly centered, 
while Ecbatane was more particularly the 
private residence of the kings. It was their 
refuge in danger, their retreat in sickness 
and age. In a word, Susa was their seat of 
government, Babylon their great commercial 
emporium, but Ecbatane was their home. 

And thus as the oracle, when Cambyses 
inquired in respect to the circumstances of 
his death, had said that it was decreed by 
the fates that he should die at Ecbatane, it 
meant, as he supposed, that he should die in 
peace, in his bed, at the close of the usual 
period alloted to the life of man. Consider- 
ing thus that the fates had removed all danger 
of a sudden and violent death from his path, 
he abandoned himself to his career of vice 



40 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

and folly, remembering only the substance 
of the oracle, while the particular form of 
words in which it was expressed passed from 
his mind. 

At length Cambyses, after completing his 
conquests in Egypt, returned to the north- 
ward, along the shores of the Mediterranean 
Sea, until he came into Syria. The province 
of Galilee, so often mentioned in the sacred 
Scriptures, was a part of Syria. In travers- 
ing Gralilee at the head of the detachment of 
troops that was accompanying him, Cam- 
byses came, one day, to a small town, and 
encamped there. The town itself was of so 
little importance that Cambyses did not, at 
the time of his arriving at it, even know its 
name. His encampment at the place, how- 
ever, was marked by a very memorable event, 
namely, he met with a herald here, who was 
traveling through Syria, saying that he had 
been sent from Susa to proclaim to the people 
of Syria that Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, had 
assumed the throne, and to enjoin upon them 
all to obey no orders except such as should 
come from him ! 

Cambyses had supposed that Smerdis was 
dead. Prexaspes, when he had returned 
from Susa, had reported that he had killed 
him. He now, however, sent for Prexaspes, 
and demanded of him what this proclamation 
could mean. Prexaspes renewed, and in- 
sisted upon, his declaration that Smerdis was 
dead. He had destroyed him with his own 
hands, and had seen him buried. "If the 



THE END OF CAMBYSES. 41 

dead can rise from the grave," added Prex- 
aspes, " then Smerdis may, perhaps, raise a 
revolt and appear against you ; but not 
otherwise." 

Prexaspes then recommended that the 
king should send and seize the herald, and 
inquire particularly of him in respect to the 
government in whose name he was acting. 
Cambyses did so. The herald was taken and 
brought before the king. On being ques- 
tioned whether it was true that Smerdis had 
really assumed the government and com- 
missioned him to make proclamation of the 
fact, he replied that it was so. He had not 
seen Smerdis himself, he said, for he kept 
himself shut up very closely in his palace ; 
but he was informed of his accession by one 
of the magians whom Cambyses had left in 
command. It "was by him, he said, that he 
had been commissioned to proclaim Smerdis 
as king. 

Prexaspes then said that he had no doubt 
that the two magians whom Cambyses had 
left in charge of the government had con- 
trived to seize the throne. He reminded 
Cambyses that the name of one of them was 
Smerdis, and that probably that was the 
Smerdis who was usurping the supreme com- 
mand. Cambyses said that he was convinced 
that this supposition was true. His dream, in 
which he had seen a vision of Smerdis, with 
his head reaching to the heavens, referred, 
he had no doubt, tothemagian Smerdis, and 
not to his brother. He bWan bitterlv to 



42 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

reproach himself for having caused his 
innocent brother to be put to death ; but 
the remorse which he thus felt for his crime, 
in assassinating an imaginary rival, soon 
gave way to rage and resentment against 
the real usurper. He called for his horse, 
and began to mount him in hot haste, to 
give immediate orders, and make immediate 
preparations for marching to Susa. 

As he bounded into the saddle, with his 
mind in this state of reckless desperation, 
the sheath, by some accident or by some care- 
lessness caused by his headlong haste, fell 
from his sword, and the naked point of the 
weapon pierced his thigh. The attendants 
took him from his horse, and conveyed him 
again to his tent. The wound, on examina- 
tion, proved to be a very dangerous one, and 
the strong passions, the vexation, the disap- 
pointment, the impotent rage, which were 
agitating the mind of the patient, exerted an 
influence extremely unfavorable to recovery. 
Cambyses, terrified at the prospect of death, 
asked what was the name of the town where 
he was lying. They told him it was Ecbatane. 

He had never thought before of the pos- 
sibility that there might be some other 
Ecbatane besides his splendid royal retreat 
in Media ; but now, when he learned that 
was the name of the place where he was 
then encamped, he felt sure that his hour 
was come, and he was overwhelmed with re- 
morse and despair. 

He suffered, too, inconceivable pain and 




Darius, face p. U4 



Persian Magiana at Their Sacred Kites. 



THE END OF CAMBYSES. 43 

anguish from his wound. The sword had 
pierced to the bone, and the in nam 1 nation 
which had supervened was of the worst 
character. After some days, the acuteness 
of the agony which he at first endured passed 
gradually away, though the extent of the 
injury resulting from the wound was grow- 
ing every clay greater and more hopeless. 
The sufferer lay, pale, emaciated, and 
wretched, on his couch, his mind, in every 
interval of bodily agony, filling up the void 
with the more dreadful sufferings of horror 
and despair. 

At length, on the twentieth day after his 
wound had been received, he called the lead- 
ing nobles of his court and officers of his 
army about his bedside, and said to them 
that he was about to die, and that he was 
compelled, by the calamity which had be- 
fallen him, to declare to them what he would 
otherwise have continued to keep concealed. 
The person who had usurped the throne 
under the name of Smerdis, he now said, was 
not, and could not be, his brother Smerdis, 
the son of Cyrus. He then proceeded to 
give them an account of the manner in which 
his fears in respect to his brother had been 
excited by his dream, and of the desperate 
remedy that he had resorted to in ordering 
him to be killed. He believed, he said, that 
the usurper was Smerdis the magian, whom 
he had left as one of the regents when he 
set out on his Egyptian campaign. He 
urged them, therefore, not to submit to his 



44 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

sway, but to go back to Media, and if they 
could not conquer him and put him down by 
open war, to destroy him by deceit and 
stratagem, or in any way whatever by 
which the end could be accomplished. 
Cambyses urged this with so much of the 
spirit of hatred and revenge beaming in his 
hollow and glassy eye as to show that sick- 
ness, pain, and the approach of death, which 
had made so total a change in the wretched 
sufferer's outward condition, had altered 
nothing within. 

Very soon after making this communica- 
tion to his nobles, Cambyses expired. 

It will well illustrate the estimate which 
those who knew him best, formed of this 
great hero's character, to state, that those 
who heard this solemn declaration did not 
believe one word of it from beginning to 
end. They supposed that the whole story 
which the dying tyrant had told them, 
although he had scarcely breath enough left 
to tell it, was a fabrication, dictated by his 
fraternal jealousy and hate. They believed 
that it was really the true Smerdis who 
had been proclaimed king, and that Cam- 
byses had invented, in his dying moments, 
the story of his having killed him, in order 
to prevent the Persians from submitting 
peaceably to his reign. 




CHAPTER III. 



SMEEDIS THE MAGIAN. 

Cambyses and his friends bad been right 
in their conjectures that it was Smerdis the 
magian who had usurped the Persian throne. 
This Smerdis resembled, it was said, the son 
of Cyrus in personal appearance as well as 
in name. The other magian who had been 
associated with him in the regency when 
Cambyses set out from Persia on his Egyp- 
tian campaign was his brother. His name 
was Patizithes. When Cyrus had been some 
time absent, these magians, having in the 
mean time, perhaps, heard unfavorable ac- 
counts of his conduct and character, and 
knowing the effect which such wanton 
tyranny must have in alienating from him the 
allegiance of his subjects, conceived the de- 
sign of taking possession of the empire in their 
own name. The great distance of Oambvses 
and his army from home, and his long-con- 
tinued absence, favored this plan. Their own 
position, too, as they were already in posses- 
sion of the capitals and the fortresses of the 
country, aided them ; and then the name of 
Smerdis, being the same with that of the 

4— Darius 15 



46 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

brother of Cambyses, was a circumstance 
that greatly promoted the success of the un- 
dertaking. In addition to all these general 
advantages, the cruelty of Cambyses was the 
meaus of furnishing them with a most 
opportune occasion for putting their plans 
into execution. 

The reader will recollect that, as was related 
in the last chapter, Cambyses first sent his 
brother Smerdis home, and afterward, when 
alarmed by his dream, he sent Prexaspes to 
murder him. Now the return of Smerdis 
was publicly and generally known, while his 
assassination by Prexaspes was kept a pro- 
found secret. Even the Persians connected 
with Cambyses's court in Egypt had not 
heard of the perpetration of this crime, until 
Cambyses confessed it on his dying bed, and 
even then, as was stated in the last chapter, 
they did not believe it. It is not probable 
that it was known in Media and Persia ; so 
that, after Prexaspes accomplished his work, 
and returned to Cambyses with the report 
of it, it was probably generally supposed that 
his brother was still alive, and was residing 
somewhere in one or another of the royal 
palaces. 

Such royal personages were often accus- 
tomed to live thus, in a state of great seclu- 
sion, spending their time in effeminate 
pleasures within the walls of their palaces 
parks, and gardens. When the royal Smer- 
dis, therefore, secretly and suddenly disap- 
peared, it would be very easy for the magian 



SMERDIS THE MAGIAN. 47 

Smerdis, with the collusion of a moderate 
number of courtiers and attendants, to take 
his place, especially if he continued to live in 
retirement, and exhibited himself as little as 
possible to public view. Thus it was that 
Cambyses himself, by the very crimes which 
he committed to shield himself from all 
danger of a revolt, opened the way which 
specially invited it, and almost insured its 
success. Every particular step that he took, 
too, helped to promote the end. His sending 
Smerdis home ; his waiting an interval, and 
then sending Prexaspes to destroy him ; his 
ordering his assassination to be secret — these, 
and all the other attendant circumstances, 
were only so many preliminary steps, pre- 
paring the way for the success of the revolu- 
tion which was to accomplish his ruin. He 
was, in a word, his own destroyer. Like other 
wicked men, he found, in the end, that the 
schemes of wickedness which he had malig- 
nantly aimed at the destruction of others, 
had been all the time slowly and surely 
working out his own. 

The people of Persia, therefore, were pre- 
pared by Cambyses's own acts to believe that 
the usurper Smerdis was really Cyrus's son, 
and, next to Cambyses, the heir to the throne. 
The army of Cambyses, too, in Egypt, be- 
lieved the same. It was natural that they 
should do so, for they placed no confidence 
whatever in Cambyses's d\ r ing declarations ; 
and since intelligence, which seemed to be 
official, came from Susa declaring that Smer- 



48 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

dis was still alive, and that he had actually 
taken possession of the throne, there was no 
apparent reason for doubting the fact. Be- 
sides, Prexaspes, as soon as Carabyses was 
dead, considered it safer for him to deny than 
to confess having murdered the prince. He 
therefore declared that Cambyses's story 
was false, and that he had no doubt that 
Smerdis, the monarch in whose name the 
government was administered at Susa, was 
the son of Cyrus, the true and rightful heir 
to the throne. Thus all parties throughout 
the empire acquiesced peaceably in what they 
supposed to be the legitimate succession. 

In the mean time, the usurper had placed 
himself in an exceedingly dizzy and pre- 
carious situation, and one which it would re 
quire a great deal of address and skilful 
management to sustain. The plan arranged 
between himself and his brother for a division 
of the advantages which they had secured 
by their joint and common cunning was, that 
Smerdis was to enjoy the ease and pleasure, 
and Patizithes the substantial power of the 
royalty which they had so stealthily seized. 
This was the safest plan. Smerdis> by living 
secluded, and devoting himself to retired and 
private pleasures, was the more likely to es- 
cape public observation ; while Patizithes, 
acting as his prime minister of state, could 
attend councils, issue orders, review troops, 
despatch embassies, and perform all the other 
outward functions of supreme command, 
with safety as well as pleasure. Patizithes 



SMERDIS THE MAGIAN. 49 

seems to have been, in fact, the soul of the 
whole plan. He was ambitious and aspiring 
in character, and if he could only himself 
enjoy the actual exercise of royal power, he 
was willing that his brother should enjoy the 
honor of possessing it. Patizithes, there- 
fore, governed the realm, acting, however, 
in all that he did, in Smerdis's name. 

Smerdis, on his part, was content to take 
possession of the palaces, the parks, and the 
gardens of Media and Persia, and to live in 
them in retired and quiet luxury and splen- 
dor. He appeared seldom in public, and 
then only under such circumstances as should 
not expose him to any close observation on 
the part of the spectators. His figure, air, 
and manner, and the general cast of his 
countenance, were very much like those of 
the prince whom he was attempting to per- 
sonate. There was one mark, however, by 
which he thought that there was danger 
that he might be betrayed, and that was, 
his ears had been cut off. This had been 
clone many years before, by command of 
Cyrus, on account of some offense of which 
he had been guilty. The marks of the initi- 
ation could, indeed, on public occasion, be 
concealed by the turban, or helmet, or other 
head-dress which he wore; but in private 
there was great danger either that the loss 
of the ears, or the studied effort to conceal 
it, should be observed. Smerdis was, there- 
fore, very careful to avoid being seen in 
private, by keeping himself closely secluded. 



50 DARIUS THE GBEAT. 

He shut himself up in the apartments of his 
palace at Susa, within the citadel, and 
never invited the Persian nobles to visit him 
there. 

Among the other means of luxury and 
pleasure which Smerdis found in the royal 
palaces, and which he appropriated to bis 
own enjoyment, were Cambyses's wives. In 
those times, Oriental princes and potentates 
— as is, in fact, the case at the present day, 
in many Oriental countries — possessed a 
great number of wives, who were bound to 
them by different sorts of matrimonial ties, 
more or less permanent, and bringing them 
into relations more or less intimate with 
their husband and sovereign. These wives 
were in many respects in the condition of 
slaves : in one particular they were especially 
so, namelv, that on the death of a sovereign 
they descended, like any other property, to 
the heir, who added as many of them as he 
pleased to his own seraglio. Until this was 
done, the unfortunate women were shut up 
in close seclusion on the death of their lord, 
like mourners who retire from the world 
when suffering any great and severe bereave- 
ment. 

The wives of Cambyses were appropriated 
by Smerdis to himself on his taking posses- 
sion of the throne and hearing of Cambyses's 
death. Among them was Atossa, who has 
already been mentioned as the daughter of 
Cyrus, and, of course, the sister of Cam- 
byses as well as his wife. In order to pre- 



SMEHDIS THE MAG IAN. 51 

vent these court ladies from being the means, 
in any way, of discovering the imposture 
which he was practising, the magian con- 
tinued to keep them all closely shut up in 
their several separate apartments, only allow- 
ing a favored few to visit him, one by one, 
in turn, while he prevented their having any 
communication with one another. 

The name of one of these ladies was 
Phasdyma. She was the daughter of a Per- 
sian noble of the highest rank and influence, 
named Otanes. Otanes, as well as some 
other nobles of the court, had observed and 
reflected upon the extraordinary circum- 
stances connected with the accession of Smer- 
dis to the throne, and the singular mode of 
life that he led, in secluding himself, in a 
manner so extraordinary for a Persian mon- 
arch, from all intercourse with his nobles 
and his people. The suspicions of Otanes 
and his associates were excited, but no one 
dared to communicate his thoughts to the 
others. At length, however, Otanes, who 
was a man of great energy as well as sagac- 
ity and discretion, resolved that he would 
take some measures to ascertain the truth. 

He first sent a messenger to Phsedyma, 
his daughter, asking of her whether it was 
really Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, who re- 
ceived her when she went to visit the king. 
Phaedyma, in return, sent her father word 
that she did not know 1 -, for she had never 
seen Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, before the 
death of Cambyses. She therefore could 



52 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

not say, of her own personal knowledge, 
whether the king was the genuine Smerdis 
or not. Otanes then sent to Phsedyma a 
second time, requesting her to ask the queen 
Atossa. Atossa was the sister of Smerdis 
the prince, and had known him from his 
childhood. PhaBdyma sent back word to 
her father that she could not speak to Atossa, 
for she was kept closely shut.-up in her own 
apartments, without the opportunity to com- 
municate with any one. Otanes then sent 
a third time to his daughter, telling her that 
there was one remaining mode by which 
she might ascertain the truth, and that was, 
the next time that she visited the king, to 
feel for his ears when he was asleep. If it 
was Smerdis the magian, she would find 
that he had none. He urged his daughter 
to do this by saying that, if the pretended 
king was really an impostor, the imposture 
ought to be made known, and that she, be- 
ing of noble birth, ought to have the courage 
and energy to assist in discovering it. To 
this PhaBdyma replied that she would do as 
her father desired, though she knew that 
she hazarded her life in the attempt. " If 
he has no ears, " said she, " and if I awaken 
him in attempting to feel for them, he will 
kill me ; I am sure that he will kill me on 
the spot." 

The next time that it came to Phaedyma's 
turn to visit the king, she did as her father 
had requested. She passed her hand very 
cautiously beneath the king's turban, and 



SMERDIS THE MAGIAN. 53 

found that his ears had been cut off close to 
his head. Early in the morning she com- 
municated the knowledge of the fact to her 
father. 

Otanes immediately made the case known 
to two of his friends, Persian nobles, who 
had, with him, suspected the imposture, and 
had consulted together before in respect to 
the means of detecting it. The question 
was, what was now to be done. After some 
deliberation, it was agreed that each of them 
should communicate the discovery which 
they had made to one other person, such 
as each should select from among the circle 
of his friends as the one on whose resolution, 
prudence, and fidelity he could most im- 
plicitly rely. This was done, and the num- 
ber admitted to the secret was thus increased 
to six. At this juncture it happened that 
Darius, the son of Hystaspes, the young man 
who has already been mentioned as the sub- 
ject of Cyrus's dream, came to Susa. Darius 
was a man of great prominence and popu- 
larity. His father, Hystaspes, was at that 
time the governor of the province of Persia, 
and Darius had been residing with him in 
that country. As soon as the six conspira- 
tors heard of his arrival, they admitted him 
to their councils, and thus their number was 
increased to seven. 

They immediately began to hold secret 
consultations for the purpose of determining 
how it was best to proceed, first binding 
themselves by the most solemn oaths never 



54 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

to betray one another, however their under- 
taking might end. Darius told them that 
he had himself discovered the imposture 
and usurpation of Smerdis, and that he had 
come from Persia for the purpose of slaying 
him ; and that now, since it appeared that 
the secret was known to so many, he was of 
opinion that they ought to act at once with 
the utmost decision. He thought there 
would be great danger in delay. 

Otanes, on the other hand, thought that 
they were not yet ready for action. They 
must first increase their numbers. Seven 
persons were too few to attempt to revo- 
lutionize an empire. He commended the 
courage and resolution which Darius dis- 
played, but he thought that a more cautious 
and deliberate policy would be far more 
likely to conduct them to a safe result. 

Darius replied that the course which 
Otanes recommended would certainly ruin 
them. " If we make many other persons 
acquainted with our plans," said he, " there 
will be some, notwithstanding all our pre- 
cautions, who will betray us, for the sake of 
the immense rewards which they well know 
they would receive in that case from the 
king. No," he added, "we must act our- 
selves, and alone. We must do nothing to 
excite suspicion, but must go at once into 
the palace, penetrate boldly into Smerdis's 
presence, and slay him before he has time 
to suspect our designs." 

" But we cannot get into his presence," 



SMERDIS THE MAGIAN. 55 

replied Otanes. u There are guards stationed 
at every gate and door, who will not allow 
us to pass. If we attempt to kill them, a 
tumult will be immediately raised, and the 
alarm given, and all our designs will thus 
be baffled." 

" There will be little difficulty about the 
guards," said Darius. " They know us all, 
and, from deference to our rank and station, 
they will let us pass without suspicion, espe- 
cially if we act boldly and promptly, and 
do not give them time to stop and consider 
what to do. Besides, I can say that I have 
just arrived from Persia with important 
despatches for the king, and that I must be 
admitted immediately into his presence. If 
a falsehood must be told, so let it be. The 
urgency of the crisis demands and sanctions 
it." 

It may seem strange to the reader, con- 
sidering the ideas and habits of the times, 
that Darius should have even thought it 
necessary to apologize to his confederates 
for his proposal of employing falsehood in 
the accomplishment of their plans ; and it 
is, in fact, altogether probable that the 
apology which he is made to utter is his 
historian's, and not his own. 

The other conspirators had remained 
silent during this discussion between Darius 
and Otanes ; but now a third, whose name 
was Gobryas, expressed his opinion in favor 
of the course which Darius recommended. 
He was aware, he said, that, in attempting 



56 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

to force their way into the king's presence 
and kill him by a sudden assault, they ex- 
posed themselves to the most imminent dan- 
ger ; but it was better for them to die in 
the manly attempt to bring back the impe- 
rial power again into Persian hands, where 
it properly belonged, than to acquiesce any 
further in its continuance in the possession 
of the ignoble Median priests who had so 
treacherously usurped it. 

To this counsel they all finally agreed, 
and began to make arrangements for carry- 
ing their desperate enterprise into execu- 
tion. 

In the mean time, very extraordinary 
events were transpiring in another part of 
the city. The two magi, Smerdis the king 
and Patizithes his brother, had some cause, 
it seems, to fear that the nobles about the 
court, and the officers of the Persian army, 
were not without suspicions that the reign- 
ing monarch was not the real son of Cyrus. 
Rumors that Smerdis had been killed by 
Prexaspes, at the command of Cambyses, 
were in circulation. These rumors were 
contradicted, it is true, in private, by Prex- 
aspes, whenever he was forced to speak of 
the subject ; but he generally avoided it ; 
and he spoke, when he spoke at all, in that 
timid and undecided tone which men usually 
assume when they are persisting in a lie. 
In the mean time, the gloomy recollections 
of his past life, the memory of his murdered 
son, remorse for his own crime in the assas- 



SMERDIS THE MAGIAN. 57 

sination of Smerdis, and anxiety on account 
of tlie extremely dangerous position in 
which he had placed himself by his false 
denial of it, all conspired to harass his mind 
witli perpetual restlessness and misery, and 
to make life a burden. 

In order to do something to quiet the sus- 
picions which the magi feared Avere prevail- 
ing, they did not know how extensively, 
they conceived the plan of inducing Prex- 
aspes to declare in a more public and formal 
manner what he had been asserting timidly 
in private, namely, that Smerdis had not 
been killed. They accordingly convened an 
assembly of the people in a courtyard of the 
palace, or perhaps took advantage of some 
gathering casually convened, and proposed 
that Prexaspes should address them from a 
neighboring tower. Prexaspes was a man 
of high rank and of great influence, and the 
magi thought that his public espousal of their 
cause, and his open and decided contradic- 
tion of the rumor that he had killed Camby- 
ses's brother, would fully convince the Per- 
sians that it was really the rightful monarch 
that had taken possession of the throne. 

But the strength even of a strong man, 
when he has a lie to carry, soon becomes very 
small. That of Prexaspes was already 
almost exhausted and gone. He had been 
wavering and hesitating before, and this 
proposal, that he should commit himself so 
formally and solemnly, and in so public a 
manner, to statements wholly and absolutely 



58 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

untrue, brought him to a stand. He decided, 
desperately, in his own mind, that he would 
go on in his course of falsehood, remorse, 
and wretchedness no longer. He, however, 
pretended to accede to the propositions of 
the magi. He ascended the tower, and 
began to address the people. Instead, how- 
ever, of denying that he had murdered 
Smerdis, he fully confessed to the astonished 
audience that he had really committed that 
crime; he openly denounced the reigning 
Smerdis as an impostor, and called upon all 
who heard him to rise at once, destroy the 
treacherous usurper, and vindicate the rights 
of the true Persian line. As he went on, with 
vehement voice and gestures, in this speech, 
the utterance of which he knew sealed his 
own destruction, he became more and more 
excited and reckless. He denounced his hear- 
ers in the severest language if they failed to 
obey his injunctions, and imprecated upon 
them, in that event, all the curses of Heaven. 
The people listened to this strange and sud- 
den frensy of eloquence in utter amazement, 
motionless and silent ; and before they or 
the officers of the king's household who 
were present had time even to consider what 
to do, Prexaspes, coming abruptly to the 
conclusion of his harangue, threw himself 
headlong from the parapet of the tower, 
and came down among them, lifeless and 
mangled, on the pavement below. 

Of course, all was now tumult and com- 
motion in the courtyard, and it happened to 



SMERDIS THE MAGIAN. 59 

be just at this juncture that the seven con- 
spirators came from the place of their con- 
sultation to the palace, with a view of exe- 
cuting their plans. They were soon in- 
formed of what had taken place. Otanes 
was now again disposed to postpone their 
attempt upon the life of the king. The 
event which had occurred changed, ne said, 
the aspect of the subject, and they must 
wait until the tumult and excitement should 
have somewhat subsided. But Darius was 
more eager than ever in favor of instanta- 
neous action. He said that there was not a 
moment to be lost ; for the magi, so soon as 
they should be informed of the declarations 
and of the death of Prexaspes, would be 
alarmed, and would take at once the most 
effectual precautions to guard against any 
sudden assault or surprise. 

These arguments, at the very time in 
which Darius was offering them with so 
much vehemence and earnestness, were 
strengthened by a very singular sort of con- 
firmation ; for while the conspirators stood 
undetermined, they saw a flock of birds 
moving across the sky, which, on their more 
attentively regarding them, proved to be 
seven hawks pursuing two vultures. This 
they regarded an omen, intended to signify 
to them, by a divine intimation, that they 
ought to proceed. They hesitated, there- 
fore, no longer. 

They went together to the outer gates of 
the palace. The action of the guards who 



60 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

were stationed there was just what Darius 
had predicted that it would be. Awed by 
the imposing spectacle of the approach of 
seven nobles of the highest distinction, who 
were advancing, too, with an earnest and 
confident air, as if expecting no obstacle to 
their admission, they gave way at once, and 
allowed them to enter. The conspirators 
went on until they came to the inner apart- 
ments, where they found eunuchs in attend- 
ance at the doors. The eunuchs resisted, and 
demanded angrily why the guards had let 
the strangers in. " Kill them," said the 
conspirators, and immediately began to cut 
them down. The magi were within, already 
in consternation at the disclosures of Prex- 
aspes, of which they had just been informed. 
They heard the tumult and the outcries of 
the eunuchs at the doors, and seized their 
arms, the one a bow and the other a spear. 
The conspirators rushed in. The bow was 
useless in the close combat which ensued, 
and the magian who had taken it turned and 
fled. The other defended himself with his 
spear for a moment, and wounded severely 
two of his assailants. The wounded con- 
spirators fell. Three others of the number 
continued the unequal combat with the 
armed magian, while Darius and Gobryas 
rushed in pursuit of the other. 

The flying magian ran from one apart- 
ment to another until he reached a dark 
room, into which the blind instinct of fear 
prompted him to rush, in the vain hope of 




Darius, /ace p. 60 

The Struggle Between Gobryas and the False Sraerdis. 



O— Dariua 



SMEKDIS THE MAGIAN. 61 

concealment. Gobryas was foremost; he 
seized the wretched fugitive by the waist, 
and struggled to hold him, while the ma- 
gian struggled to get free. Gobryas called 
upon Darius, who was close behind him, to 
strike. Darius, brandishing his sword, 
looked earnestly into the obscure retreat, 
that he might see where to strike. 

" Strike ! " exclaimed Gobryas. " Why 
do you not strike ? " 

" I cannot see," said Darius, " and I am 
afraid of wounding you." 

"No matter," said Gobryas, struggling 
desperately all the time with his frantic 
victim. " Strike quick, if you kill us both." 

Darius struck. Gobryas loosened his 
hold, and the magian fell upon the floor, 
and there, stabbed again through the heart 
by Darius's sword, almost immediately 
ceased to breathe. 

They dragged the body to the light, and 
cut off the head. They did the same with 
the other magian, whom they found that 
their confederates had killed when they 
returned to the apartments where they 
had left them contending. The whole body 
of the conspirators then, except the two who 
were wounded, exulting in their success, and 
wild with the excitement which such deeds 
always awaken, went forth into the streets 
of the city, bearing the heads upon pikes as 
the trophies of their victory. They sum- 
moned the Persian soldiers to arms, and 
announced everywhere that they had ascer- 



62 



DARIUS THE GREAT. 



fcained that the king was a priest and an 
impostor, and not their legitimate sovereign, 
and that they had consequently killed him. 
They called upon the people to kill the 
magians wherever they could find them, as 




The Slaughter of the Magians. 

if the whole class were implicated in the 
guilt of the usurping brothers. 

The populace in all countries are easily 
excited by such denunciations and appeals 
as these. The Persians armed themselves, 
and ran to and fro everywhere in pursuit 
of the unhappy magians, and before night 
vast numbers of them were slain. 




CHAPTER IV. 



THE ACCESSION OE DAEIUS. 



For several days after the assassination of 
the magi the city was filled with excite- 
ment, tumults, and confusion. There was 
no heir, of the family of Cyrus, entitled to 
succeed to the vacant throne, for neither 
Cambyses, nor Smerdis his brother, had left 
any sons. There was, indeed, a daughter 
of Smerdis, named Parmys, and there were 
also still living two daughters of Cyrus. 
One was Atossa, whom we have already 
mentioned as having been married to Cam- 
byses, her brother, and as having been after- 
ward taken by Smerdis the magian as one 
of his wives. These princesses, though of 
royal lineage, seem neither of them to have 
been disposed to assert any claims to the 
throne at such a crisis. The mass of the 
community were stupefied with astonish- 
ment at the sudden revolution which had 
occurred. No movement was made toward 
determining the succession. For five days 
nothing was done. 

During this period, all the subordinate 
functions of government in the provinces, 
cities, and towns, and among the various 

63 



64 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

garrisons and encampments of the army, 
went on, of course, as usual, but the general 
administration of the government had no 
head. The seven confederates had been re- 
garded, for the time being, as a sort of pro- 
visional government, the army and the 
country in general, so far as appears, look- 
ing to them for the means of extrication 
from the political difficulties in which this 
sudden revolution had involved them, and 
submitting, in the meantime, to their direc- 
tion and control. Such a state of things, it 
was obvious, could not long last ; and after 
five days, when the commotion had somewhat 
subsided, they began to consider it necessary 
to make some arrangements of a more per- 
manent character, the power to make such 
arrangements as they thought best resting 
with them alone. They accordingly met 
for consultation. 

Herodotus the historian,* on whose narra- 
tive of these events we have mainly to rely 
for all the information respecting them which 
is now to be attained, gives a very minute 
and dramatic account of the deliberations of 
the conspirators on this occasion. The ac- 
count is, in fact, too dramatic to be probably 
true. 

Otanes, in this discussion, was in favor of 

* An account of Herodotus, and of the circum- 
stances under which he wrote his history, which 
will aid the reader very much in forming an opinion 
in respect to the kind and degree of confidence which 
it is proper to place in his statements, will be found 
in the first chapter of our history of Cyrus the Great, 



THE ACCESSION OF DAltlUS. 65 

establishing a republic. lie did not think it 
safe or wise to intrust the supreme power 
again to any single individual. It was proved 
he said, by universal experience, that when 
any one person was raised to such an eleva- 
tion above his fellow-men, he became sus- 
picious, jealous, insolent, and cruel. He 
lost all regard for the welfare and happiness 
of others, and became supremely devoted to 
the preservation of his own greatness and 
power by any means, however tyrannical, 
and to the accomplishment of the purposes 
of his own despotic will. The best and most 
valuable citizens w r ere as likely to become 
the victims of his oppression as the worst. 
In fact, tyrants generally chose their favor- 
ites, he said, from among the most aban- 
doned men and women in their realms, such 
characters being the readiest instruments of 
their guilty pleasures and their crimes. 
Otanes referred very particularly to the case 
of Cambyses as an example of the extreme 
lengths to which the despotic insolence and 
cruelty of a tyrant could go. He reminded 
his colleagues of the sufferings and terrors 
which they had endured while under his 
sway, and urged them very strongly not to 
expose themselves to such terrible evils and 
dangers again. He proposed, therefore, 
that they should establish a republic, under 
which the' officers of government should be 
elected, and questions of public policy be de- 
termined, in assemblies of the people. 

It must be understood, however, by the 



66 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

reader, that a republic, as contemplated and 
intended by Otanes in this speech, was en- 
tirely different from the mode of government 
which that word denotes at the present day. 
They had little idea, in those times, of the 
principle of representation, by which the 
thousand separate and detached communities 
of a great empire can choose delegates, who 
are to deliberate, speak, and act for them in 
the assemblies where the great governmental 
decisions are ultimately made. By this 
principle of representation, the people can 
really all share in the exercise of power. 
"Without it they cannot, for it is impossible 
that the people of a great state can ever be 
brought together in one assembly ; nor, even 
if it were practicable to bring them thus to- 
gether, would it be possible for such a con- 
course to deliberate or act. The action of 
any assembly which goes beyond a very few 
hundred in numbers, is always, in fact, the 
action exclusively of the small knot of leaders 
who call and manage it. Otanes, therefore, 
as well as all other advocates of republican 
government in ancient times, meant that the 
supreme power should be exercised, not by 
the great mass of the people included within 
the jurisdiction in question, but by such a 
portion of certain privileged classes as could 
be brought together in the capital. It was 
such a sort of republic as would be formed 
in this country if the affairs of the country 
at large, and the municipal and domestic in- 
stitutions of all the states, were regulated 



THE ACCESSION OF DARIUS. 67 

and controlled by laws enacted, and by 
governors appointed, at great municipal 
meetings held in the city of New York. 

This was, in fact, the nature of all the re- 
publics of ancient times. They were gener- 
ally small, and the city in whose free citizens 
the supreme power resided, constituted by 
far the most important portion of the body 
politic. The Roman republic, however, be- 
came at one period very large. It overspread 
almost the whole of Europe ; but, widely ex- 
tended as it was in territory, and comprising 
innumerable states and kingdoms within its 
jurisdiction, the vast concentration of power 
by which the whole was governed, vested 
entirely and exclusively in noisy and tumult- 
uous assemblies convened in the Roman 
forum. 

Even if the idea of a representative system 
of government, such as is adopted in modern 
times, and by means of which the people of 
a great and extended empire can exercise, 
conveniently and efficiently, a general sov- 
ereignty held in common by them all, had 
been understood in ancient times, it is very 
doubtful whether it could, in those times, 
have been carried into effect, for want of 
certain facilities which are enjoyed in the 
present age, and which seem essential for 
the safe and easy action of so vast and com- 
plicated a system as a great representative 
government must necessarily be. The regu- 
lar transaction of business atpublic meetings, 
and the orderly and successful management 



68 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

of any extended system of elections, requires 
a great deal of writing ; and the general 
circulation of newspapers, or something exer- 
cising the great function which it is the 
object of newspapers to fulfil, that of keep- 
ing the people at large in some degree 
informed in respect to the progress of public 
affairs, seems essential to the successful 
working of a system of representative govern- 
ment comprising any considerable extent of 
territory. 

However this may be, whether a great 
representative system would or would not 
have been practicable in ancient times if it 
had been tried, it is certain that it was never 
tried. In all ancient republics, the sov- 
ereignty resided, essentially, in a privileged 
class of the people of the capital. The terri- 
tories governed were provinces, held in sub- 
jection as dependencies, and compelled to 
pay tribute ; and this was the plan which 
Otanes meant to advocate when recommend- 
ing a republic, in the Persian council. 

The name of the second speaker in this 
celebrated consultation was Megabyzus. He 
opposed the plan of Otanes. He concurred 
fully, he said, in all that Otanes had advanced 
in respect to the evils of a monarchy, and to 
the oppression and tyranny to which a peo- 
ple were exposed whose liberties and lives 
were subject to the despotic control of a 
single human will. But, in order to avoid 
one extreme, it was not necessary to run into 
the evils of the other. The disadvantages 



THE ACCESSION OF DARIUS. (J9 

and dangers of popular control in the 
management of the affairs of state were 
scarcely less than those of a despotism. 
Popular assemblies were always, he said, 
turbulent, passionate, capricious. Their 
decisions were controlled by artful and 
designing demagogues. It was not possible 
that masses of the common people could 
have either the sagacity to form wise counsels 
or the energy and steadiness to execute them. 
There could be no deliberation, no calmness, 
no secrecy in their consultations. A popu- 
lace was always governed by excitements, 
which spread among them by a common 
sympathy ; and they would give way im- 
petuously to the most senseless impulses, as 
they were urged by their fear, their resent- 
ment, their exultation, their hate, or by any 
other passing emotion of the hour. 

Megabyzus therefore disapproved of both 
monarchy and a republic. He recommended 
an oligarchy. " We are now," said he, " al- 
ready seven. Let us select from the leading 
nobles in the court and officers of the army a 
small number of men, eminent for talents and 
virtue, and thus form a select and competent 
body of men, which shall be the depository 
of the supreme power. Such a plan avoids 
the evils and inconveniences of both the 
other systems. There can be no tyranny or 
oppression under such a system ; for, if any 
one of so large a number should be inclined 
to abuse his power, he will be restrained by 
the rest. On the other hand, the number 



70 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

will not be so large as to preclude prudence 
and deliberation in counsel, and the highest 
efficiency and energy in carrying counsels 
into effect." 

When Megabyzus had completed his 
speech, Darius expressed his opinion. He 
said that the arguments of those who had 
already spoken appeared plausible, but that 
the speakers had not dealt quite fairly by the 
different systems whose merits they had dis- 
cussed, since they had compared a good ad- 
ministration of one form of government with 
a bad administration of another. Everything 
human was, he admitted, subject to imperfec- 
tion and liable to abuse ; but on the supposi- 
tion that each of the three forms which had 
been proposed were equally well adminis- 
tered, the advantage, he thought, would lie 
strongly on the side of monarchy. Control 
exercised by a single mind and will was far 
more concentrated and efficient than that pro- 
ceeding from any conceivable combination. 
The forming of plans could be, in that case, 
more secret and wary, and the execution of 
them more immediate and prompt. Where 
power was lodged in many hands, all ener- 
getic exercise of it was paralyzed by the dis- 
sensions, the animosities, and the contending 
struggles of envious and jealous rivals. 
These struggles, in fact, usually resulted in 
the predominance of some one, more ener- 
getic or more successful than the rest, the 
aristocracy or the democracy running thus, 
of its own accord, to a despotism in the end, 




p 

a 
w 
p 

u 
<D 

1> 



— 



THE ACCESSION OF DARIUS. 71 

showing that there were natural causes al- 
ways tending to the subjection of nations of 
men to the control of one single will. 

Besides all this, Darius added, in conclu- 
sion, that the Persians had always been ac- 
customed to a monarchy, and it would be a 
very dangerous experiment to attempt to in- 
troduce a new system, which would require 
so entire a change in all the habits and 
usages of the people. 

Thus the consultation went on. At the 
end of it, it appeared that four out of the 
seven agreed with Darius in preferring a 
monarchy. This was a majority, and thus 
the question seemed to be settled. Otanes 
said that he would make no opposition to 
any measures which they might adopt to 
carry their decision into effect, but that he 
would not himself be subject to the monarchy 
which they might establish. " I do not 
wish," he added, " either to govern others or 
to have others govern me. You may estab- 
lish a kingdom, therefore, if you choose, and 
designate the monarch in any mode that you 
see St to adopt, but he must not consider me 
as one of his subjects. I myself, and all my 
family and dependents, must be wholly free 
from his control." 

This was a very unreasonable proposition, 
unless, indeed, Otanes was willing to with- 
draw altogether from the community to 
which he thus refused to be subject ; for, by 
residing within it, he necessarily enjoyed its 
protection, and ought, therefore, to bear his 



72 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

portion of its burdens, and to be amendable 
to its laws. Notwithstanding this, however, 
the conspirators acceded to the proposal, and 
Otanes withdrew. 

The remaining six of the confederates then 
proceeded with their arrangements for the 
establishment of a monarchy. They first 
agreed that one of their own number should 
be the king, and that on whomsoever the 
choice should fall, the other five, while they 
submitted to his dominion, should always 
enjoy peculiar privileges and honors at his 
court. They were at all times to have free 
access to the palaces and to the presence of 
the king, and it was from among their 
daughters alone that the king was to choose 
his wives. These and some other similar 
points having been arranged, the manner of 
deciding which of the six should be the king 
remained to be determined. The plan which 
they adopted, and the circumstances con- 
nected with the execution of it, constitute, 
certainly, one of the most extraordinary of 
all the strange transactions recorded in 
ancient times. It is gravely related by Hero- 
dotus as sober truth. How far it is to be 
considered as by any possibility credible, the 
reader must judge, after knowing what the 
story is. 

They agreed, then, that on the following 
morning they would all meet on horseback 
at a place agreed upon beyond the walls of 
the city, and that the one whose horse should 
neigh first should be the king ! The time 



THE ACCESSION OF DARIUS. 7^ 

when this ridiculous ceremony was to be 
performed was sunrise. 

As soon as this arrangement was made the 
parties separated, and each went to his own 
home. Darius called his groom, whose name 
was (E bases, and ordered him to have his 
horse ready at sunrise on the next morning, 
explaining to him, at the same time, the plan 
which had been formed for electing the king. 
" If that is the mode which is to be adopted," 
said (Ebases, " you need have no concern, 
for I can arrange it very easily so as to have 
the lot fall upon you." Darius expressed a 
strong desire to have this accomplished, if it 
were possible, and OE bases went away. 

The method which (Ebases adopted was 
to lead Darius's horse out to the ground that 
evening, in company with another, the 
favorite companion, it seems, of the animal. 
Now the attachment of the horse to his 
companion is very strong, and his recollec- 
tion of localities very vivid, and (Ebases ex- 
pected that when the horse should approach 
the ground on the following morning, he 
would be reminded of the company which 
he enjoyed there the night before, and neigh. 
The result was as he anticipated. As the 
horsemen rode up to the appointed place, the 
horse of Darius neighed the first, and Darius 
was unanimously acknowledged king. 

In respect to the credibility of this famous 
story, the first thought which arises in the 
mind is, that it is utterly impossible that 
sane men, acting in so momentous a crisis, 

6— Darltii 



74 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

and where interests so vast and extended 
were at stake, could have resorted to a plan 
so childish and ridiculous as this. Such 
a mode of designating a leader, seriously 
adopted, would have done discredit to a 
troop of boys making arrangements for a 
holiday ; and yet here was an empire extend- 
ing for thousands of miles through the heart 
of a vast continent, comprising, probably, 
fifty nations and many millions of people, 
with capitals, palaces, armies, fleets, and all 
the other appointments and machinery of an 
immense dominion, to be appropriated and 
disposed of absolutely, and, so far as they 
could see, forever. It seems incredible that 
men possessing such intelligence, and infor- 
mation, and extent of view as we should 
suppose that officers of their rank and station 
would necessarily acquire, could have at- 
tempted to decide such a momentous ques- 
tion in so ridiculous and trivial a manner. 
And yet the account is seriously recorded 
by Herodotus as sober history, and the story 
has been related again and again, from that 
day to this, by every successive generation 
of "historians, without any particular question 
of its truth. 

And it may possibly be that it is true. It 
is a case in which the apparent improbability 
is far greater than the real. In the first 
place, it would seem that, in all ages of the 
world, the acts and decisions of men occupy- 
ing positions of the most absolute and ex- 
alted power have been controlled, to a much 



THE ACCESSION OF DARIUS. 75 

greater degree, by caprice and by momentary 
impulse, than mankind have generally sup- 
posed. Looking up as we do to these vast 
elevations from below, they seem invested 
with a certain sublimity and grandeur which 
we imagine must continually impress the 
minds of those who occupy them, and ex- 
pand and strengthen their powers, and lead 
them to act, in all respects, with the circum- 
spection, the deliberation, and the far-reach- 
ing sagacity which the emergencies continu- 
ally arising seem to require. And this is, in 
fact, in some degree the case with the states- 
men and political leaders raised to power 
under the constitutional governments of 
modern times. Such statesmen are clothed 
with their high authority, in one way or 
another, by the combined and deliberate ac- 
tion of vast masses of men, and every step 
which they take is watched, in reference to 
its influence on the condition and welfare of 
these masses, by many millions ; so that such 
men live and act under a continual sense of 
responsibility, and they appreciate, in some 
degree, the momentous importance of their 
doings. But the absolute and independent 
sovereigns of the Old World, who held their 
power by conquest or by inheritance, though 
raised sometimes to very vast and giddy 
elevations, seem to have been unconscious, 
in many instances, of the dignity and grand- 
eur of their standing, and to have consid- 
ered their acts only as they affected their 
own personal and temporary interests. Thus, 



76 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

though placed on a great elevation, they 
took only very narrow and circumscribed 
views ; they saw nothing but the objects 
immediately around them ; and they often 
acted, accordingly, in the most frivolous and 
capricious manner. 

It was so, undoubtedly, with these six 
conspirators. In deciding which of their 
number should be king, they thought noth- 
ing of the interest of the vast realms, and 
of the countless millions of people whose 
government was to be provided for. The 
question, as they considered it, was doubt- 
less merely which of them should have pos- 
session of the royal palaces, and be the 
center and the object of royal pomp and 
parade in the festivities and celebrations of 
the capital. 

And in the mode of decision which they 
adopted, it may be that some degree of 
superstitious feeling mingled. The actions 
and the voices of animals were considered, 
in those days, as supernatural omens, in- 
dicating the will of heaven. These conspir- 
ators may have expected, accordingly, in the 
neighing of the horse, a sort of divine in- 
timation in respect to the disposition of the 
crown. This idea is confirmed by the state- 
ment which the account of this transaction 
contains, that immediately after the neighing 
of Darius's horse, it thundered, although 
there were no clouds in the sky from which 
the thunder could be supposed naturally to 
come. The conspirators, at all events, con- 



THE ACCESSION OF DARIUS. 



77 



sidered it solemnly decided that Darius was 
to be king. They all dismounted from their 
horses and knelt around him, in acknowl- 
edgment of their allegiance and subjection. 

It seems that Darius, after he became 
established on his throne, considered the 
contrivance by which, through the assist- 
ance of his groom, he had obtained the prize, 
not as an act of fraud which it was incum- 
bent on, him to conceal, but as one of brilliant 
sagacity which he was to avow and glory 
in. lie caused a magnificent equestrian 
statue to be sculptured, representing him- 
self mounted on his neighing horse. This 
statue he set up in a public place with this 
inscription : 

Darius, son of Hystaspes, obtained the 
sovereignty of persia by the sagacity of 
his horse and the ingenious contrivance 
of (ebases his groom. 





CHAPTEE V. 

THE PROVINCES. 

Several of the events and incidents which 
occurred immediately after the accession of 
Darius to the throne, illustrate in a strik- 
ing manner the degree in which the princes 
and potentates of ancient days were gov- 
erned by caprice and passionate impulse 
even in their public acts. One of the most 
remarkable of these was the case of Inta- 
phernes. 

Intaphernes was one of the seven conspira- 
tors who combined to depose the magian 
and place Darius on the throne. By the 
agreement which they made with each other 
before it was decided which should be the 
king, each of them was to have free access 
to the king's presence at all times. One 
evening, soon after Darius became estab- 
lished on his throne, Intaphernes went to 
the palace, and was proceeding to enter the 
apartment of the king without ceremony, 
when he was stopped by two officers, who told 
him that the king had retired. Intaphernes 
was incensed at the officers' insolence, as he 
called it. He drew his sword, and cut off 
their noses and their ears. Then he took 

78. 



THE PROVINCES. 79 

the bridle off from his horse at the palace 
gate, and tied the officers together ; and 
then, leaving them in this helpless and miser- 
able condition, he went away. 

The officers immediately repaired to the 
king, and presented themselves to him, a 
frightful spectacle, wounded and bleeding, 
and complaining bitterly of Intaph ernes as 
the author of the injuries which they had 
received. The king was at first alarmed for 
his own safety. He feared that the con- 
spirators had all combined together to rebel 
against his authority, and that this daring 
insult offered to his personal attendants, in 
his very palace, was the first outbreak of it. 
He accordingly sent for the conspirators, 
one by one, to ask of them whether they 
approved of what Intaphernes had done 
They promptly disavowed all connection 
with Intaphernes in the act, and all approval 
of it, and declared their determination to 
adhere to the decision that they had made, 
by which Darius had been placed on the 
throne. 

Darius then, after taking proper precau- 
tions to guard against any possible attempts 
at resistance, sent soldiers to seize Inta- 
phernes, and also his son, and all of his 
family, relatives, and friends who were capa- 
ble of bearing arms ; for. he suspected that 
Intaphernes had meditated a rebellion, and 
he thought that, if so, these men w T ould most 
probably be his accomplices. The prisoners 
were brought before him. There was, in- 



80 DARIUS THE GEEAT. 

deed, no proof that they were engaged in 
any plan of rebellion, nor even that any 
plan of rebellion whatever had been formed ; 
but this circumstance afforded them no pro- 
tection. The liberties and the lives of all 
subjects were at the supreme and absolute 
disposal of these ancient kings. Darius 
thought it possible that the prisoners had 
entertained, or might entertain, some trea- 
sonable designs, and he conceived that he 
should, accordingly, feel safer if they were 
removed out of the way. He decreed, there- 
fore, that they must all die. 

While the preparations were making for 
the execution, the wife of Intaphernes came 
continually to the palace of Darius, begging 
for an audience, that she might intercede 
for the lives of her friends. Darius was in- 
formed of this, and at last, pretending to be 
moved with compassion for her distress, he 
sent her word that he would pardon one of 
the criminals for her sake, and that she 
might decide which one it should be. His 
real motive in making this proposal seems 
to have been to enjoy the perplexity and 
anguish which the heart of a woman must 
suffer in being compelled thus to decide, in 
a question of life and death, between a hus- 
band and a son. 

The wife of Intaphernes did not decide in 
favor of either of these. She gave the pref- 
erence, on the other hand, to a brother. 
Darius was very much surprised at this re- 
sult, and sent a messenger to her to inquire 



THE PROVINCES. 81 

how it happened that she could pass over 
and abandon to their late her husband and 
her son, in order to save the life of her 
brother, who was certainly to be presumed 
less near and dear to her. To Avhich she 
gave this extraordinary reply, that the loss 
of her husband and her son might perhaps 
be repaired, since it was not impossible that 
she might be married again, and that she 
might have another son ; but that, inasmuch 
as both her father and mother were dead, 
she could never have another brother. The 
death of her present brother would, there- 
fore, be an irreparable loss. 

The king was so much pleased with the 
novelty and unexpectedness of this turn of 
thought, that he gave her the life of her son 
in addition to that of her brother. All the 
rest of the family circle of relatives and 
friends, together with Intaphernes himself, 
he ordered to be slain. 

Darius had occasion to be so much dis- 
pleased, too, shortly after his accession to 
the throne, with the governor of one of his 
provinces, that he was induced to order him 
to be put to death. The circumstances con- 
nected with this governor's crime, and the 
manner of his execution, illustrate very for- 
cibly the kind -of government which was 
administered by these military despots in 
ancient times. It must be premised that 
great empires, like that over which Darius 
had been called to rule, were generally di- 
vided into provinces. The inhabitants of 



82 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

these provinces, each community within its 
own borders, went on, from year to year, in 
their various pursuits of peaceful industry, 
governed mainly, in their relations to each 
other, by the natural sense of justice in- 
stinctive in man, and by those, thousand 
local institutions and usages which are al- 
ways springing up in all human communities 
under the influence of this principle. There 
were governors stationed over these prov- 
inces, whose main duty it was to collect 
and remit to the king the tribute which 
the province was required to furnish him. 
These governors were, of course, also to 
suppress any domestic outbreak of violence, 
and to repel any foreign invasion which 
might occur. A sufficient military force 
was placed at their disposal to enable them 
to fulfil these functions. They paid these 
troops, of course, from sums which they col- 
lected in their provinces under the same 
system by which they collected the tribute. 
This made them, in a great measure, inde- 
pendent of the king in the maintenance of 
their armies. They thus intrenched them- 
selves in their various capitals at the head 
of these troops, and reigned over their re- 
spective dominions almost as if they were 
kings themselves. They had, in fact, very 
little connection with the supreme monarch, 
except to send him the annual tribute which 
they had collected from their people, and to 
furnish, also, their quota of troops in case 
of a national war, In the time of our 



THE PROVINCES. 83 

Saviour, Pilate was such a governor, in- 
trusted by the Komans with the charge of 
Judea, and Matthew was one of the tax 
gatherers employed to collect the tribute. 

Of course, the governors of such provinces, 
as we have already said, were, in a great 
measure, independent of the king. He had, 
ordinarily, no officers of justice whose juris- 
diction could control, peacefully, such power- 
ful vassals. The only remedy, in most cases, 
when they were disobedient and rebellious, 
was to raise an army and go forth to make 
war upon them, as in the case of any foreign 
state. This was attended with great ex- 
pense, and trouble, and hazard. The gov- 
ernors, when ambitious and aspiring, some- 
times managed their resources with so much 
energy and military skill as to get the vic- 
tory over their sovereign in the contests in 
which they engaged with them, and then 
they would gain vast accessions to the privi- 
leges and powers which they exercised in 
their own departments ; and they would 
sometimes overthrow their discomfited sov- 
ereign entirely, and take possession of his 
throne themselves in his stead. 

Oretes was the name of one of these gover- 
nors in the time of Darius. He had been 
placed by Cyrus, some years before, in 
charge of one of the provinces into which 
the kingdom of Lydia had been divided. 
The seat of government was Sardis.* He 

* For the position of Sardis, and of other places 
mentioned in this chapter, see the map facing 



84 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

was a capricious and cruel tyrant, as, in 
fact, almost all such governors were. We 
will relate an account of one of the deeds 
which he performed some time before 
Darius ascended the throne, and which suffi- 
ciently illustrates his character. 

He was one day sitting at the gates of his 
palace in Sardis, in conversation with the 
governor of a neighboring territory who 
had come to visit him. The name of this 
guest was Mitrobates. As the two friends 
were boasting to one another, as such war- 
riors are accustomed to do, of the deeds of 
valor and prowess which they had respec- 
tively performed, Mitrobates said that 
Oretes could not make any great pretensions 
to enterprise and bravery so long as he al- 
lowed the Greek island of Samos, which 
was situated at a short distance from the 
Lydian coast, to remain independent, when 
it would be so easy to annex it to the Persian 
empire. " You are afraid of Polycrates, I 
suppose," said he. Polycrates was the king 
of Samos. 

Oretes was stung by this taunt, but, in- 
stead of revenging himself on Mitrobates, 
the author of it, he resolved on destroying 
Polycrates, though he had no reason other 
than this for any feeling of enmity toward 
him. 

Polycrates, although the seat of his do- 
minion was a small island in the JEgean Sea, 

page 70, and also the one facing page 172. 







a. 



£ 



1111 

■I 

li 111 i 



liiifitt 



_ 



THE PROVINCES. 85 

was a very wealthy, and powerful, and pros- 

Eerous prince. All his plans and enterprises 
ad been remarkably successful. He had 
built and equipped a powerful fleet, and had 
conquered many islands in the neighborhood 
of his own. He was projecting still wider 
schemes of conquest, and hoped, in fact, to 
make himself the master of all the seas. 

A very curious incident is related of Poly- 
crates, which illustrates very strikingly the 
childish superstition which governed the 
minds of men in those ancient days. It 
seems that in the midst of his prosperity, 
his friend and ally, the King of Egypt — for 
these events, though narrated here, occurred 
before the invasion of Egypt by Cambyses — 
sent to him a letter, of which the following 
is the purport. 

" Amasis, Icing of Egypt, to Polycrates. 

" It always gives me great satisfaction and 
pleasure to hear of the prosperity of a friend 
and ally, unless it is too absolutely continu- 
ous and uninterrupted. Something like an 
alternation of good and ill fortune is best 
for man ; I have never known an instance of 
a very long-continued course of unmingled 
and uninterrupted success that did not end, 
at last, in overwhelming and terrible ca- 
lamity. I am anxious, therefore, for you, 
and my anxiety will greatly increase if 
this extraordinary and unbroken prosperity 
should continue much longer. I counsel 



86 DAHIUS THE GREAT. 

you, therefore, to break the current yourself, 
if fortune will not break it. Bring upon 
yourself some calamity, or loss, or suffering, 
as a means of averting the heavier evils 
which will otherwise inevitably befall you. 
It is a general and substantial welfare only 
that can be permanent and final." 

Polycrates seemed to think there was 
good sense in this suggestion. He began to 
look around him to see in what way he 
could bring upon himself some moderate 
calamity or loss, and at length decided on 
the destruction of a very valuable signet 
ring which he kept among his treasures. 
The ring was made with very costly jewels 
set in gold, and was much celebrated both 
for its exquisite workmanship and also for 
its intrinsic value. The loss of this ring 
would be, he thought, a sufficient calamity 
to break the evil charm of an excessive and 
unvaried current of good fortune. Polycra- 
tes, therefore, ordered one of the largest 
vessels in his navy, a fifty-oared galley, to 
be equipped and manned, and, embarking 
in it with a large company of attendants, 
he put to sea. When he was at some dis- 
tance from the island, he took the ring, and 
in the presence of all his attendants, he 
threw it forth into the water, and saw it 
sink, to rise, as he supposed, no more. 

But Fortune, it seems, was not to be thus 
outgeneraled. A few days after Polycrates 
had returned, a certain fisherman on the 



THE PROVINCES. 87 

coast took, in his nets, a fish of very extra- 
ordinary size and beauty ; so extraordinary, 
in fact, that he felt it incumbent on him to 
make a present of it to the king. The serv- 
ants of Polycrates, on opening the fish for 
the purpose of preparing it for the table, to 
their great astonishment and gratification, 
found the ring within. The king was over- 
joyed at thus recovering his lost treasure ; 
he had, in fact, repented of his rashness in 
throwing it away, and had been bitterly 
lamenting its loss. His satisfaction and 
pleasure were, therefore, very great in re- 
gaining it ; and he immediately sent to 
Amasis an account of the whole transaction, 
expecting that Amasis would share in his 

j°y- 

Amasis, however, sent back word to him 
in reply, that he considered the return of 
the ring in that almost miraculous manner 
as an extremely unfavorable omen. "I 
fear," said he, " that it is decreed by the 
Fates that you must be overwhelmed, at 
last, by some dreadful calamity, and that no 
measures of precaution which you can adopt 
will avail to avert it. It seems to me, too," 
he added, " that it is incumbent on me to 
withdraw from all alliance and connection 
with you, lest I should also, at last, be in- 
volved in your destined destruction." 

Whether this extraordinary story was 
true, or whether it was all fabricated, after 
the fall of Polycrates, as a dramatic embel- 
lishment of his history, we cannot now 



88 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

know. The result, however, corresponded 
with these predictions of Amasis, if they 
were really made ; for it was soon after these 
events that the conversation took place at 
Sardis between Oretes and Mitrobates, at 
the gates of the palace, which led Oretes to 
determine on effecting Poly crates's destruc- 
tion. 

In executing the plans which he thus 
formed, Oretes had not the courage and 
energy necessary for an open attack on Poly- 
crates, and he consequently resolved on at- 
tempting to accomplish his end by treachery 
and stratagem. 

The plan which he devised was this : He 
sent a messenger to Poly crates with a letter 
of the following purport : 

" Oretes, governor of Sardis, to Poly crates of 
Samos. 

" I am aware, sire, of the plans which you 
have long been entertaining for extending 
your power among the islands and over the 
waters of the Mediterranean, until you shall 
have acquired the supreme and absolute 
dominion of the seas. I should like to join 
you in this enterprise. You have ships and 
men, and I have money. Let us enter into 
an alliance with each other. I have accumu- 
lated in my treasuries a large supply of gold 
and silver, which I will furnish for the ex- 
penses of the undertaking. If you have any 
doubt of my sincerity in making these offers, 



*HE PROVINCES. 89 

and of ray ability to fuliil them, send some 
messenger in whom you have conlidence, 
and I will lay the evidence before him." 

Polycrates was much pleased at the pros- 
pect of a large accession to his funds, and 
he sent the messenger, as Oretes had pro- 
posed. Oretes prepared to receive him by 
filling a large number of boxes nearly full 
with heavy stones, and then placing a shallow 
layer of gold or silver coin at the top. 
These boxes were then suitably covered and 
secured, with the fastenings usually adopted 
in those days, and placed away in the royal 
treasuries. When the messenger arrived, 
the boxes were brought out and opened, and 
were seen by the messenger to be full, as he 
supposed, of gold and silver treasure. The 
messenger went back to Polycrates, and re- 
ported that all which Oretes had said was 
true ; and Polycrates then determined to go 
to the main land himself to pay Oretes a 
visit, that they might mature together their 
plans for the intended campaigns. He 
ordered a fifty-oared galley to be prepared 
to convey him. 

His daughter felt a presentiment, it seems, 
that some calamity was impending. She 
earnestly entreated her father not to go. 
She had had a dream, she said, about him, 
which had frightened her excessively, and 
which she was convinced portended some 
terrible danger. Polycrates paid no atten- 
tion to his daughter's warnings. She urged 



90 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

them more and more earnestly, until, at last, 
she made her father angry, and then she de- 
sisted. Poly crates then embarked on board 
his splendid galley, and sailed away. As 
soon as he landed in the dominions of Ore- 
tes, the monster seized him and put him to 
death, and then ordered his body to be 
nailed to a cross, for exhibition to all the 
passers-by, as a public spectacle. The train 
of attendants and servants that accompanied 
Polycrates on this expedition were all made 
slaves, except a few persons of distinction, 
who were sent home in a shameful and dis- 
graceful manner. Among the attendants 
who were detained in captivity by Oretes 
was a celebrated family physician, named 
Democedes, whose remarkable and romantic 
adventures will be the subject of the next 
chapter. 

Oretes committed several other murders 
and assassinations in this treacherous man- 
ner, without any just ground for provocation. 
In these deeds of violence and cruelty, he 
seems to have acted purely under the in- 
fluence of that wanton and capricious ma- 
lignity which the possession of absolute and 
irresponsible power so often engenders in 
the minds of bad men. It is doubtful, how- 
ever, whether these cruelties and crimes 
would have particularly attracted the at- 
tention of Darius, so long as he was not him- 
self directly affected by them. The central 
government, in these ancient empires, gen- 
erally interested itself very little in the con- 



THE PROVINCES. 91 

tentions and quarrels of the governors of 
the provinces, provided that the tribute was 
efficiently collected and regularly paid. 

A case, however, soon occurred, in Oretes's 
treacherous and bloody career, which arrested 
the attention of Darius and aroused his ire. 
Darius had sent a messenger to Oretes, with 
certain orders, which, it seems, Oretes did 
not like to obey. After delivering his des- 
patches, the bearer set out on his return, and 
was never afterward heard of. Darius as- 
certained, to his own satisfaction at least, 
that Oretes had caused his messenger to be 
waylaid and killed, and that the bodies both 
of horse and rider had been buried, secretly, 
in the solitudes of the mountains, in order 
to conceal the evidences of the deed. 

Darius determined on punishing this 
crime. Some consideration was, however, 
required, in order to determine in what way 
his object could best be effected. The prov- 
ince of Oretes was at a great distance from 
Susa, and Oretes was strongly established 
there, at the head of a great force. His 
guards were bound, it is true, to obey the 
orders of Darius, but it was questionable 
whether they would do so. To raise an 
army and march against the rebellious 
governor, would be an expensive and haz- 
ardous undertaking, and perhaps, too, it 
would prove that such a measure was not 
necessary. All things considered, Darius 
determined to try the experiment of acting, 
by his own direct orders, upon the troops 



92 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

and guards in Oretes's capital, with the in- 
tention of resorting subsequently to an armed 
force of his own, if that should be at last re- 
quired. 

He accordingly called together a number 
of his officers and nobles, selecting those on 
whose resolution and fidelity he could most 
confidently rely, and made the following 
address to them : 

" I have an enterprise which I wish to 
commit to the charge of some one of your 
number who is willing to undertake it, which 
requires no military force, and no violent 
measures of any kind, but only wisdom, 
sagacity, and courage. I wish to have 
Oretes, the governor of Sardis, brought to 
me, dead or alive. He has perpetrated in- 
numerable crimes, and now, in addition to 
all his other deeds of treacherous violence, 
he has had the intolerable insolence to put 
to death one of my messengers. Which of 
you will volunteer to bring him, dead or 
alive, to me ? " 

This proposal awakened a great enthusiasm 
among the nobles to whom it was addressed. 
Nearly thirty of them volunteered their serv- 
ices to execute the order. Darius concluded 
to decide between these competitors by lot. 
The lot fell upon a certain man named Ba- 
gaeus, and he immediately began to form 
his plans and make his arrangements for 
the expedition. 

He caused a number of different orders 
to be prepared, beginning with directions of 



THE PROVINCES. 93 

little moment, and proceeding to commands 
of more and more weighty importance, all 
addressed to the officers of Oretes's army 
and to his guards. These orders were all 
drawn up in writing with great formality, 
and were signed by the name of Darius, and 
sealed with his seal ; they, moreover, named 
Bagseus as the officer selected by the king 
to superintend the execution of them. Pro- 
vided with these documents, Bagseus pro- 
ceeded to Sardis, and presented himself at 
the court of Oretes. He presented his own 
personal credentials, and with them some of 
his most insignificant orders. Neither Ore- 
tes nor his guards felt any disposition to 
disobey them. Bagaeus, being thus received 
and recognized as the envoy of the king, 
continued to present new decrees and edicts, 
from time to time, as occasions occurred in 
which he thought the guards would be ready 
to obey them, until he found the habit, on 
their part, of looking to him as the represen- 
tative of the supreme power sufficiently es- 
tablished ; for their disposition to obey him 
was not merely tested, it was strengthened 
by every new' act of obedience. AVhen he 
found, at length, that his hold upon the 
guards was sufficiently strong, he produced 
his two final decrees, one ordering the guards 
to depose Oretes from his power, and the 
other to behead him. Both the commands 
were obeyed. 

The events and incidents which have been 
described in this chapter were of no great im- 



94 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

portance in themselves, but they illustrate, 
more forcibly than any general description 
would do, the nature and the operation of the 
government exercised by Darius throughout 
the vast empire over which he found himself 
presiding. 

Such personal and individual contests and 
transactions were not all that occupied his at- 
tention. He devoted a great deal of thought 
and of time to the work of arranging, in a 
distinct and systematic manner, the division 
of his dominions into provinces, and to reg- 
ulating precisely the amount of tribute to be 
required of each, and the modes of collecting 
it. He divided his empire into twenty great 
districts, each of which was governed by a 
ruler called a satrap. He fixed the amount 
of tribute which each of these districts was 
to pay, making it greater or less as the soil 
and the productions of the country varied in 
fertility and abundance. In some cases this 
tribute was to be paid in gold, in others in 
silver, and in others in peculiar commodities, 
natural to the country of which they were 
required. For example, one satrapy, which 
comprised a country famous for its horses, 
was obliged to furnish one white horse for 
every day in the year. This made three 
hundred and sixty annually, that being the 
number of days in the Persian year. Such 
a supply, furnished yearly, enabled the king 
soon to have a very large troop of white 
horses ; and as the horses were beautifully 
caparisoned, and the riders magnificently 



THE PROVINCES. 95 

armed, the body of cavalry thus formed was 
one of the most splendid in the world. 

The satrapies were numbered from the 
west toward the east. The western portion 
of Asia Minor constituted the first, and the 
East Indian nations the twelfth and last. 
The East Indians had to pay their tribute in in- 
gots of gold. Their country produced gold. 
. As it is now forever too late to separate 
the facts from the fiction of ancient history, 
and determine what is to be rejected as false 
and what received as true, our only resource 
is to tell the whole story just as it comes 
down to us, leaving it to each reader to de- 
cide for himself what he will believe. In 
this view of the subject, we will conclude 
this chapter by relating the manner in which 
it was said in ancient times that these Indian 
nations obtained their gold. 

The gold country w T as situated in remote 
and dreary deserts^ inhabited only by wild 
beasts and vermin, among which last there 
was, it seems, a species of ants, which were 
of enormous size, and wonderful fierceness 
and voracity, and which could run faster 
than the fleetest horse or camel. These ants, 
in making their excavations, would bring up 
from beneath the surface of the ground all 
the particles of gold which came in their 
way, and throw them out around their hills. 
The Indians then would penetrate into these 
deserts, mounted on the fleetest camels that 
they could procure, and leading other camels, 
not so fleet, by their sides. They were pro- 



96 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

vided, also, with bags for containing the 
golden sands. When they arrived at the 
ant hills, they would dismount, and, gather- 
ing up the gold which the ants had discarded, 
would fill their bags with the utmost possible 
despatch, and then mount their camels and 
ride away. The ants, in the mean time, 
would take the alarm, and begin to assemble 
to attack them ; but as their instinct prompt- 
ed them to wait until considerable numbers 
were collected before they commenced their 
attack, the Indians had time to fill their bags 
and begin their flight before their enemies 
were ready. Then commenced the chase, 
the camels running at their full speed, and 
the swarms of ants following, and gradually 
drawing nearer and nearer. At length, when 
nearly overtaken, the Indians would abandon 
the camels that they were leading, and fly 
on, more swiftly, upon those which they 
rode. While the ants were busy in devour- 
ing the victims thus given up to them, the 
authors of all the mischief would make good 
their escape, and thus carry off their gold to 
a place of safety. These famous ants were 
bigger than foxes ! 




CHAPTEE VI. 



THE RECONNOITERING OF GREECE. 



The great event in the history of Darius — 
the one, in fact, on account of which it was, 
mainly, that his name and his career have 
been so widely celebrated among mankind, 
was an attempt which he made, on a very 
magnificent scale, for the invasion and con- 
quest of Greece. Before commencing active 
operations in this grand undertaking, he sent 
a reconnoitering party to examine and ex- 
plore the ground. This reconnoitering party 
met with a variety of extraordinary adven- 
tures in the course of its progress, and the 
history of it will accordingly form the sub- 
ject of this chapter. 

The guide to this celebrated reconnoitering 
party was a certain Greek physician named 
Democedes. Though Democedes was called 
a Greek, he was, really, an Italian by birth. 
His native town was Crotona, which may be 
found exactly at the ball of the foot on the 
map of Italy. It was by a very singular 
series of adventures that he passed from this 
remote village in the west, over thousands 
of miles by land and sea, to Susa, Darius's 
capital. He began by running away from 

97 



98 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

his father while he was still a boy. He said 
that he was driven to this step by the in- 
tolerable strictness and cruelty of his father's 
government. This, however, is always the 
pretext of turbulent and ungovernable young 
men, who abandon their parents and their 
homes when the favors and the protection 
necessary during their long and helpless in- 
fancy have been all received, and the time 
is beginning to arrive for making some 
return. 

Democedes was ingenious and cunning 
and fond of roving adventure. In running 
away from home, he embarked on board a 
ship, as such characters generally do at the 
present day, and went to sea. After meeting 
with various adventures, he established him- 
self in the island of Egina, in the JEgean Sea, 
where he began to practise as a physician, 
though he had had no regular education in 
that art. In his practise he evinced so much 
medical skill, or, at least, exercised so much 
adroitness in leading people to believe that 
he possessed it, as to give him very soon 
a wide and exalted reputation. The people 
of Egina appointed him their physician, and 
assigned him a large salary for his services 
in attending upon the sick throughout the 
island. This was the usual practice in those 
days. A town, or an island, or any cir- 
cumscribed district of country, would appoint 
a physician as a public officer, who was to de- 
vote his attention, at a fixed annual salary, 
to any cases of sickness which might arise in 



' 




m 2 



THE RECONNOITEKING OF GREECE. 99 

the community, wherever his services were 
needed, precisely as physicians serve in hos- 
pitals and public institutions in modern 
times. 

Democedes remained at yEgina two years, 
during which time his celebrity increased and 
extended more and more, until, at length, he 
received an appointment from the city of 
Athens, with the offer of a greatly increased 
salary. He accepted the appointment, and 
remained in Athens one year, when he re- 
ceived still more advantageous offers from 
Poly crates, the king of Samos, whose history 
was given so fully in the last chapter. 

Democedes remained for some time in the 
court of Polycrates, where he was raised to 
the highest distinction, and loaded with 
many honors. He was a member of the 
household of the king, enjoyed his confidence 
in a high degree, and attended him, per- 
sonally, on all his expeditions. At last, when 
Polycrates went to Sardis, as is related in 
the last chapter, to receive the treasures of 
Oretes, and concert with him the plans for 
their proposed campaign, Democedes ac- 
companied him as usual ; and when Poly- 
crates was slain, and his attendants and 
followers were made captive by Oretes, the 
unfortunate physician was among the num- 
ber. By this reverse, he found that he had 
suddenly fallen from affluence, ease, and 
honor, to the condition of a neglected and 
wretched captive in the hands of a malignant 
and merciless tyrant. 



100 DAEIUS THE GREAT. 

Democedes pined in this confinement for 
a long time ; when, at length, Oretes him- 
self was killed by the order of Darius, it 
might have been expected that the hour of 
his deliverance had arrived! But it was not' 
so ; his condition was, in fact, made worse 
and not better by it ; for Bagaaus, the com- 
missioner of Darius, instead of inquiring in- 
to the circumstances relating to the various 
members of Oretes's family, and redressing 
the wrongs which any of them might be suf- 
fering, simply seized the whole company, and 
brought them all to Darius in Susa, as tro- 
phies of his triumph, and tokens of the faith- 
fulness and efficiency with which he had ex- 
ecuted the work that Darius had committed 
to his charge. Thus Democedes was borne 
away, in hopeless bondage, thousands of 
miles farther from his native land than be- 
fore, and with very little prospect of being 
ever able to return. He arrived at Susa, desti- 
tute, squalid, and miserable. His language 
was foreign, his rank and his professional 
skill unknown, and all the marks which might 
indicate the refinement and delicacy of the 
modes of life to which he had been accus- 
tomed were wholly disguised by his present 
destitution and wretchedness. He was sent 
with the other captives to the prisons, where 
he was secured, like them, with fetters and 
chains, and was soon almost entirely forgot- 
ton. 

He might have taken some measures for 
making his character, and his past celebrity 

4 . 



THE KECONNOITERING OF GREECE. 101 

and fame as a physician known ; but he did 
not dare to do this, for fear that Darius might 
learn to value his medical skill, and so detain 
him as a slave for the sake oi" his services. 
He thought that the chance was greater that 
some turn of fortune, or some accidental 
change in the arrangements of government 
might take place, by which he might be set 
at liberty, as an insignificant and worthless 
captive, whom there was no particular mo- 
tive for detaining, than if he were trans- 
ferred to the king's household as a slave, 
and his value as an artisan — for medical 
practise was, in those days, simply an art — 
were once known. He made no effort, there- 
fore, to bring his true character to light, 
but pined silently in his dungeon, in rags and 
wretchedness, and in a mental despondency 
xmich was gradually sinking into despair. 

About this time, it happened that Darius 
was one day riding furiously in a chase, and 
coming upon some sudden danger, he at- 
tempted to leap from his horse. He fell and 
sprained his ankle. He was taken up by the 
attendants, and carried home. His physi- 
cians were immediately called to attend to 
the case. They were Egyptians. Egypt 
was, in fact, considered the great seat and 
center of learning and of the arts in those 
days, and no royal household was complete 
without Egyptian physicians. 

The learning and skill, however, of the 
Egyptians in Darius's court were entirely 
baffled by the sprain. They thought that the 

8— Darius 



102 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

joint was dislocated, and they turned and 
twisted the foot with so much violence, in their 
attempts to restore the bones to their proper 
position, as greatly to increase the pain and 
the inflammation. Darius spent a week in 
extreme and excruciating suffering. He 
could not sleep day nor night, but tossed in 
continual restlessness and anguish on his 
couch, made constantly worse instead of 
better by every effort of his physicians to 
relieve him. 

At length somebody informed him that 
there was a Greek physician among the cap- 
tives that came from Sardis, and recom- 
mended that Darius should send for him. 
The king, in his impatience and pain, was 
ready for any experiment which promised 
the least hope of relief, and he ordered that 
Democedes should be immediately sum- 
moned. The officers accordingly went to 
the prison and brought out the astonished 
captive, without any notice or preparation, 
and conducted him, just as he was, ragged 
and wretched, and shackled with iron fetters 
upon his feet, into the presence of the king. 
The fetters which such captives wore were 
intended to allow them to walk, slowly and 
with difficulty, while they impeded the move- 
ments of the feet so as effectually to pre- 
vent any long or rapid flight, or any escape 
at all from free pursuers. 

Democedes, when questioned by Darius, 
denied at first that he possessed any medical 
knowledge or skill. Darius was, however, 



THE RECONNOITERlN(i OF Q-BBECE. L03 

not deceived by these protestations. It was 
very customary, in those days of royal tyr- 
anny, for those who possessed anything valu- 
able to conceal the possession of it : conceal- 
ment was often their only protection. Darius, 
who was well aware of this tendency, did 
not believe the assurances of Democedes, 
and in the irritation and impatience caused 
by his pain, he ordered the captive to be 
taken out and put to the torture, in order to 
make him confess that he was really a phy- 
sician. 

Democedes yielded without waiting to be 
actually put to the test. He acknowledged 
at once, for fear of the torture, that he had 
had some experience in medical practise, 
and the sprained ankle was immediately 
committed to his charge. On examining 
the case, he thought that the harsh and vio- 
lent operations which the Egyptian physi- 
cians had attempted were not required. He 
treated the inflamed and swollen joint in 
the gentlest manner. He made fomenting 
and emollient applications, which soothed 
the pain, subdued the inflammation, and al- 
layed the restlessness and the fever. The 
royal sufferer became quiet and calm, and 
in a short time fell asleep. 

In a word, the king rapidly recovered ; 
and, overwhelmed with gratitude toward 
the benefactor whose skill had saved him 
from such suffering, he ordered that, in 
place of his single pair of iron fetters, he 
should have two pairs of fetters of gold ! 



101 DARIUS TFIE GREAT. 

It might at first be imagined that such a 
strange token of regard as this could be in- 
tended only as a jest and an insult ; but 
there is no doubt that Darius meant it se- 
riously as a compliment and an honor. He 
supposed that Democedes, of course, consid- 
ered his condition of captivity as a fixed 
and permanent one; and that his fetters 
were not, in themselves, an injustice or dis- 
grace, but the necessary and unavoidable 
concomitant of his lot, so that the sending 
of golden fetters to a slave was very natur- 
ally, in his view, like presenting a golden 
crutch to a cripple. Democedes received 
the equivocal donation with great good na- 
ture. He even ventured upon a joke on the 
subject to the convalescent king. " It seems, 
sire," said he, " that in return for my saving 
your limb and your life, you double my ser- 
vitude. You have given me two chains in- 
stead of one." 

The king, who was now in a much better 
mood to be pleased than when, writhing in 
anguish, he had ordered Democedes to be 
put to the torture, laughed at this reply, and 
released the captive from the bonds entirely. 
He ordered him to be conducted by the at- 
tendants to the apartments of the palace, 
where the wives of Darius and the other 
ladies of the court resided, that they might 
see him and express their gratitude. " This 
is the physician," said the eunuchs, who in- 
troduced him, " that cured the king." The 
ladies welcomed him with the utmost cor- 



THE RECONNOITEltlNG OF GREECE. 105 

diality, and loaded him with presents of gold 
and silver as he passed through their apart- 
ments. The king made arrangements, too, 
immediately, for providing him with a mag- 
nificent house in iSusa, and established him 
there in great luxury and splendor, with 
costly furniture and many attendants, and 
all other marks of distinction and honor. In 
a word, Democedes found himself, by means 
of another unexpected change of fortune, 
suddenly elevated to a height as lofty as his 
miserv and degradation had been low. lie 
was, however, a captive still. 

The queen Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, 
who has already been mentioned as the wife 
of Cambyscs and of Smerdis the magian, was 
one of the wives of Darius. Her sister An- 
tystone was another. A third was Phaedy- 
ma, the daughter of Otanes, the lady who 
had been so instrumental, in connection 
with Atossa, in the discovery of the magian 
imposture. It happened that, some time 
after the curing of Darius's sprain, Atossa 
herself was sick. Her malady was of such 
a nature, that for some time she kept it 
concealed, from a feeling of delicacy.* At 
length, terrified by the danger which threat- 
ened her, she sent for Democedes, and made 
her case known to him. He said that he 
could cure her, but she must first promise to 
grant him, if he did so, a certain favor which 

* It was a tumor of the breast, which became, at 
length, an open ulcer, and began to spread and en- 
large in a very formidable maimer. 



106 DARItJS THE GREAT. 

he should ask. She must promise before- 
hand to grant it, whatever it might be. It 
was nothing, he said, that should in any way 
compromise her honor. 

Atossa agreed to these conditions, and 
Democedes undertook her case. Her malady 
was soon cured ; and when she asked him 
what was the favor which he wished to de- 
mand, he replied, 

" Persuade Darius to form a plan for the 
invasion of Greece, and to send me, with 
a small company of attendants, to explore 
the country, and obtain for him all the nec- 
essary preliminary information. In this 
way I shall see my native land once more." 

Atossa was faithful to her promise. She 
availed herself of the first favorable oppor- 
tunity, when it became her turn to visit the 
king, to direct his mind, by a dexterous con- 
versation, toward the subject of the enlarge- 
ment of his empire. He had vast forces and 
resources, she said, at his command, and 
might easily enter upon a career of conquest 
which would attract the admiration of the 
world. Darius replied that he had been en- 
tertaining some views of that nature. He 
had thought, he said, of attacking the Scy- 
thians : these Scythians were a group of 
semi-savage nations on the north of his do- 
minions. Atossa represented to him that 
subduing the Scythians would be too easy a 
conquest, and that it would be a far nobler 
enterprise, and more worthy of his talents 
and his vast resources, to undertake an ex- 



THE RECONNOITEKING OF GREECE. 107 

pedition into Europe, and attempt the con- 
quest of Greece. You have all the means at 
your command essential for the success of 
such an undertaking, and you have in your 
court a man who can give you, or can obtain 
for you, all the necessary information in 
respect to the country, to enable you to form 
the plan of your campaigns. 

The ambition of Darius was fired by these 
suggestions. He began immediately to form 
projects and schemes. In a day or two he 
organized a small party of Persian officers 
of distinction, in whom he had great con- 
fidence, to go on an exploring tour into 
Greece. They were provided with a suit- 
able company of attendants, and with every- 
thing necessary for their journey, and De- 
mocedes was directed to prepare to go with 
them as their guide. They were to travel 
simply as a party of Persian noblemen, on 
an excursion of curiosity and pleasure, con- 
cealing their true design ; and as Democedes 
their guide, though born in Italy, was in all 
important points a Greek, and was well ac- 
quainted with the countries through which 
they were to pass, they supposed that they 
could travel everywhere without suspicion. 
Darius charged the Persians to keep a dili- 
gent watch over Democedes, and not to allow 
him, on any account, to leave them, but to 
bring him back to Susa safely with them on 
their return. 

As for Democedes, he had no intention 
whatever of returning to Persia, though he 



108 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

kept his designs of making his escape en- 
tirely concealed. Darius, with seeming gen- 
erosity, said to him, while he was making 
his preparations, " I recommend to you to 
take with you all your private wealth and 
treasures, to distribute, for presents, among 
your friends in Greece and Italy. I will 
bestow more upon you here on your return." 
Democedes regarded this counsel with great 
suspicion. He imagined that the king, in 
giving him. this permission, wished to ascer- 
tain, by observing whether he would really 
take with him all his possessions,the existence 
of any secret determination in his mind not 
to come back to Susa. If this were Darius' s 
plan, it was defeated by the sagacious vigi- 
lance and cunning of the physician. He 
told the king, in reply, that he preferred to 
leave his effects in Persia, that they might 
be ready for his use on his return. The 
king then ordered a variety of costly articles 
to be provided and given to Democedes, to 
be taken with him and presented to his 
friends in" Greece and Italy. They con- 
sisted of vessels of gold and silver, pieces of 
Persian armor of beautiful workmanship, 
and articles of dress, expensive and splen- 
did. These were all carefully packed, and. 
the various other necessary preparations 
were made for the long journey. 

At length the expedition set out. They 
traveled by land westward, across the conti- 
nent, till they reached the eastern shores of 
the Mediterranean Sea. The port at which 



THE KECONNOITERING OF GREECE. 109 

they arrived was Sidon, the city so often 
mentioned in the Scriptures as a great pagan 
emporium of commerce. The city of Sidon 
was in the height of its glory at this time, 
being one of the most important ports of the 
Mediterranean for all the western part of 
Asia. Caravans of travelers came to it by 
land, bringing on the backs of camels the 
productions of Arabia, Persia, and all the 
East ; and fleets of ships by sea, loaded with 
the corn, and wine, and oil of the Western 
nations. 

At Sidon the land journey of the expedi- 
tion was ended. Here they bought two large 
and splendid ships, galleys of three banks of 
oars, to convey them to Greece. These 
galleys were for their own personal accom- 
modation. There was a third vessel, called 
a transport, for the conveyance of their bag- 
gage, which consisted mainly of the packages 
of rich and costly presents which Darius had 
prepared. Some of these presents were for 
the friends of Democedes, as has been already 
explained, and others had been provided as 
gifts and offerings from the king himself to 
such distinguished personages as the travel- 
ers might visit on their route. When the 
vessels were ready, and the costly cargo was 
on board, the company of travelers em- 
barked, and the little fleet put to sea. 

The Grecian territories are endlessly 
divided and indented by the seas, whose 
irregular and winding shores form promon- 
tories, peninsulas, and islands Avithout num- 



110 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

ber, which are accessible in every part by- 
water. The Persian explorers cruised about 
among these coasts under Democedes' s guid- 
ance, examining every thing, and noting 
carefully all the information which they 
could obtain, either by personal observation 
or by inquiring of others, which might be of 
service to Darius in his intended invasion. 
Democedes allowed them to take their 
own time, directing their course, however, 
steadily, though slowly, toward his own 
native town of Crotona. The expedition 
landed in various places, and were every- 
where well received. It was not for the in- 
terest of Democedes that they should yet be 
intercepted. In fact, the name and power 
of Darius were very much feared, or, at least, 
very highly respected in all the Grecian ter- 
ritory, and the people were little inclined to 
molest a peaceful party of Persians traveling 
like ordinary tourists and under the guidance, 
too, of a distinguished countryman of their 
own, whose name was, in some degree, a 
guarantee for the honesty and innocence of 
their intentions. At length, however, after 
spending some time in the Grecian seas, the 
little squadron moved still farther west, to- 
ward the coast of Italy, and arrived finally 
at Tarentum. Tarentum was the great port 
on the Grecian side of Italy. It was at the 
head of the spacious bay which sets up be- 
tween the heel and the ball of the foot of 
the boot-shaped peninsula. Crotona, De- 
mocedes's native town, to which he was 



THE RECONNOITERING OF CiUEECE. Ill 

now desirous to return, was southwest of Ta- 
rentum, about two hundred miles along the 
shore.* 

It was a very curious and extraordinary 
circumstance that, though the expedition had 
been thus far allowed to go and come as its 
leaders pleased, without any hindrance or 
suspicion, yet now, the moment that they 
touched a point from which Democedes 
could easily reach his home, the authorities 
on shore, in some way or other, obtained 
some intimation of the true character of their 
enterprise. The Prince of Tarentum seized 
the ships. He made the Persians themselves 
prisoners also, and shut them up ; and, in 
order effectually to confine the ships, he took 
away the helms from them, so that they 
could not be steered, and were thus entirely 
disabled. The expedition being thus, for the 
time at least, broken up, Democedes said, 
coolly, that he would take the opportunity 
to make a little excursion along the coast, 
and visit his friends at Crotona ! 

It was another equally suspicious circum- 
stance in respect to the probability that this 
seizure was the result of Democedes's man- 
agement, that, as soon as he was safely away, 
the Prince of Tarentum set his prisoners at 
liberty, releasing, at the same time, the ships 
from the seizure, and sending the helms on 
board. The Persians were indignant at the 
treatment which they had received, and set 

* For the situation of these places, see the map 
facing page 172. 



112 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

sail immediately along the coast toward 
Crotona in pursuit of Democedes. They 
found him in the market-place in Crotona, 
haranguing the people, and exciting, by his 
appearance and his discourse, a great and 
general curiosity. They attempted to seize 
him as a fugitive, and called upon the people 
of Crotona to aid them, threatening them 
with the vengeance of Darius if they refused. 
A part of the people were disposed to comply 
with this demand, while others rallied to 
defend their townsman. A great tumult 
ensued ; but, in the end, the party of De- 
mocedes was victorious. He was not only 
thus personally rescued, but as he informed 
the people that the transport vessel which 
accompanied the expedition contained prop- 
erty that belonged to him, they seized that 
too, and gave it up to Democedes, saying to 
the Persians that, though they must give up 
the transport, the galleys remained at their 
service to convey them back to their own 
country whenever they wished to go. 

The Persians had now no other alterna- 
tive but to return home. They bad, it is 
true, pretty nearly accomplished the object 
of their undertaking ; but, if anything re- 
mained to be done, they could not now at- 
tempt it with any advantage, as they had 
lost their guide, and a great portion of the 
effects which had been provided by Darius 
to enable them to propitiate the favor of the 
princes and potentates into whose power 
they might fall. They accordingly began 



THE RECONNOITEKING OF GREECE. IIS 

to make preparations for sailing back again 
to Sidon, while Democedes established him- 
self in great magnificence and splendor in 
Crotona. When, at length, the Persians 
were ready to sail, Democedes wished them 
a very pleasant voyage, and desired them to 
give his best respects to Darius, and inform 
him that he could not return at present to 
Persia, as he was making arrangements to 
be married ! 

The disasters w T hich had befallen these 
Persian reconnoiterers thus far were only 
the beginning of their troubles. Their ships 
were driven by contrary winds out of their 
course, and they were thrown at last upon 
the coast of Iapygia, a country occupying 
the heel of Italy. Here they were seized by 
the inhabitants and made slaves. It hap- 
pened that there was living in this wild 
country at that time a man of wealth and of 
cultivation, who had been exiled from Ta- 
reri um on account of some political offenses. 
His name was Cillus. He heard the story 
of these unhappy foreigners, and interested 
himself in their fate. He thought that, by 
rescuing them from their captivity and send- 
ing them home, he should make Darius his 
friend, and secure, perhaps, his aid in effect- 
ing his own restoration to his native land. 
He accordingly paid the ransom which was 
demanded for the captives, and set them 
free. He then aided them in making ar- 
rangements for their return to Persia, and 
the unfortunate messengers found their way 



114 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

back at last to the court of Darius, without 
their guide, without any of the splendid ap- 
pointments with which they had gone forth, 
but stripped of everything, and glad to 
escape with their lives. 

They had some cause to fear, too, the 
anger of Darius, for the insensate wrath of a 
tyrant is awakened as often by calamity as 
by crime. Darius, however, was in this in- 
stance graciously disposed. He received the 
unfortunate commissioners in a favorable 
manner. He took immediate measures for 
rewarding Cillus for having ransomed them. 
He treasured up, too, the information which 
they had obtained respecting Greece, though 
he was prevented by circumstances, which 
we will proceed to describe, from immedi- 
ately putting into execution his plans of in- 
vasion and conquest there. 



U ^J& 





CHAPTER VII. 



THE REVOLT OF BABYLON. 

The city of Babylon, originally the capital 
of the Assyrian empire, was conquered by 
Cyrus, the founder of the Persian monarchy, 
when he annexed the Assyrian empire to his 
dominions. It was a vast and a very mag- 
nificent and wealthy city ; and Cyrus made 
it, for a time, one of his capitals. 

When Cyrus made this conquest of Baby- 
lon, he found the Jews in captivity there. 
They had been made captive by Nebuchad- 
nezzar, a previous king of Babylon, as is re- 
lated in the Scriptures. The holy prophets 
of Judea had predicted that after seventy 
years the captives should return, and that 
Babylon itself should afterward be des- 
troyed. The first prediction was fulfilled 
by the victory of Cyrus. It devolved on 
Darius to execute the second of these solemn 
and retributive decrees of heaven. 

Although Darius was thus the instrument 
of divine Providence in the destruction of 
Babylon, he was unintentionally and uncon- 
sciously so. In the terrible scenes connect- 
ed with the siege and the storming of the 
ill-fated city, it was the impulse of°his own 

115 



116 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

hatred and revenge that he was directly obey- 
ing ; he was not at all aware that he was, at 
the same time, the messenger of the divine 
displeasure. The wretched Babylonians, in 
the storming and destruction of their city, 
were expiating a double criminality. Their 
pride, their wickedness, their wanton cruelty 
toward the Jews, had brought upon them the 
condemnation of God, while their political 
treason and rebellion, or, at least, what was 
considered treason and rebellion, aroused 
the implacable resentment of their king. 

The Babylonians, had been disposed to re- 
volt even in the days of Cyrus. They had 
been accustomed to consider their city as the 
most noble and magnificent capital in the 
world, and they were displeased that Cyrus 
did not make it the seat and center of his 
empire. Cyrus preferred Susa ; and Baby- 
lon, accordingly, though he called it one of 
his capitals, soon fell to the rank of a provin- 
cial city. The nobles and provincial leaders 
that remained there began accordingly to 
form plans for revolting from the Persian 
dominion, with a view of restoring their city 
to its ancient position and renown. 

They had a very favorable opportunity 
for maturing their plans, and making their 
preparations for the execution of them during 
the time of the magian usurpation ; for while 
the false Smerdis was on the throne, being 
shut up and concealed in his palace at Susa, 
the affairs of the provinces were neglected ; 
and when Darius and his accomplices di& 



THE 1LEV0LT OF BABYLON. 117 

covered the imposture and put Smerdis to 
death, there was necessarily required, after 
so violent a revolution, a considerable time 
before the affairs of the empire demanding 
attention at the capital could be settled, so 
as to allow the government to turn their 
thoughts at all toward the distant depend- 
encies. The Babylonians availed themselves 
of all these opportunities to put their city 
in the best condition for resisting the Persian 
power. They strengthened their defenses, 
and accumulated great stores of provisions, 
and took measures for diminishing that part 
of the population which would be useless in 
war. These measures were all concerted 
and carried into effect in the most covert 
and secret manner; and the tidings came at 
last to Susa that Babylon had openly re- 
volted, before the government of Darius was 
aware even of the existence of any disaffec- 
tion. 

The time which the Babylonians chose for 
their rebellion at last was one when the 
movable forces which Darius had at com- 
mand were at the west, engaged in a cam- 
paign on the shores of Asia Minor. Darius 
had sent them there for the purpose of 
restoring a certain exile and wanderer 
named Syloson to Samos, and making him 
the monarch of it. Darius had been induced 
thus to interpose in Syloson's behalf by the 
following very extraordinary circumstances. 

Syloson was the brother of Polycrates, 
whose unhappy history has already been 

• '— Darius 



118 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

given. He was exiled from Samos some 
time before Darius ascended the throne, and 
he became, consequently, a sort of soldier of 
fortune, serving, like other such adventurers, 
wherever there was the greatest prospect of 
glory and pay. In this capacity he followed 
the army of Cambyses into Egypt in the 
memorable campaign described in the first 
chapter of this volume. It happened, also, 
that Darius himself, who was then a young 
noble in the Persian court, and yet of no 
particular distinction, as there was then no 
reason to imagine that he would ever be 
elevated to the throne, was also in Camby- 
ses's army, and the two young men became 
acquainted with one another there. 

While the army was at Memphis, an inci- 
dent occurred in which these two personages 
were actors, which, though it seemed unim- 
portant at the time, led, in the end, to vast 
and momentous results. The incident was 
this: 

Syloson had a very handsome red cloak, 
which, as he appeared in it one day, walking 
in the great square at Memphis, strongly at- 
tracted the admiration of Darius. Darius 
asked Syloson if he would sell him the cloak. 
Syloson said that he would not sell it, but 
would give it to him. He though t, probably, 
that Darius would decline receiving it as a 
present. If he did entertain that idea, it 
seems he was mistaken. Darius praised him 
for his generosity, and accepted the gift. 

Syloson was then sorry that he had made 



THE HE VOLT OF BABYLON. 119 

so inconsiderate an offer, and regretted very 
much the loss of his cloak. In process of 
time, the campaign of Cambyses in Egypt 
was ended, and Darius returned to Persia, 
leaving Syloson in the west. At length the 
conspiracy was formed for dethroning 
Smerdis the magian, as has already been de- 
scribed, and Darius was designated to reign 
in his stead. As the news of the young 
noble's elevation spread into the western 
world, it reached Syloson. He was much 
pleased at receiving the intelligence, and he 
saw immediately that there was a prospect 
of his being able to derive some advantage, 
himself, from the accession of his old fellow- 
soldier to the throne. 

He immediately proceeded to Susa. He 
applied at the gates of the palace for admis- 
sion to the presence of the king. The porter 
asked him who he was. He replied that he 
was a Greek who had formerly done Darius 
a service, and he w r ished to see him. The 
porter carried the message to the king. The 
king could not imagine who the stranger 
should be. He endeavored in vain to recall 
to mind any instance in which he had re- 
ceived a favor from a Greek. At length 
he ordered the attendant to call the visitor 
in. 

Syloson was accordingly conducted into 
the king's presence. Darius looked upon 
him, but did not know him. He directed 
the interpreters to inquire what the service 
was which, he had rendered the king, and 



120 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

when he had rendered it. The Greek re- 
plied by relating the circumstance of the 
cloak. "Darius recollected the cloak, though 
he had forgotten the giver. " Are you, in- 
deed," said he, " the man who made me that 
present % I thought then that you were 
very generous to'me, and you shall see that 
I do not undervalue the obligation now. I 
am at length, fortunately, in a situation to 
requite the favor, and I will give you such 
an abundance of gold and silver as shall 
effectually prevent your being sorry for 
having shown a kindness to Darius Hystas- 
pes." 

Syloson thanked the king in reply, but 
said that he did not wish for gold and silver. 
Darius asked him what reward he did desire. 
He replied that he wished Samos to be 
restored to him : " Samos," said he, " was 
the possession of my brother. When he 
went away from the island, he left it tempo- 
rarily in the hands of Masandrius, an officer 
of his household. It still remains in the 
possession of this family, while I, the right- 
ful heir, am a homeless wanderer and exile, 
excluded from my brother's dominions by 
one of his slaves." 

Darius immediately determined to accede 
to Syloson's request. He raised an army 
and put it under the command of Otanes, 
who, it will be recollected, was one of the 
seven conspirators that combined to dethrone 
Smerdis the magian. He directed Otanes to 
accompany Syloson to Samos, and to put 



THE REVOLT OF BABYLON. 121 

him in possession of the island. Svloson was 
particularly earnest in his request that no 
unnecessary violence should be used, and no 
blood shed, or vindictive measures of any 
kind adopted. Darius promised to comply 
with these desires, and gave his orders to 
Otanes accordingly. 

Notwithstanding this, however, the ex- 
pedition resulted in the almost total des- 
truction of the Samian population, in the 
following manner. There was a citadel at 
Samos, to which the inhabitants retired when 
they learned that Otanes had embarked his 
troops in ships on the coast, and was ad- 
vancing toward the island. Maeandrius 
was vexed and angry at the prospect of 
being deprived of his possessions and his 
power; and, as the people hated him on 
account of his extortion and tyranny, he 
hated them in return, and cared not how 
much suffering his measures might be the 
means of bringing upon them. He had a 
subterranean and secret passage from the 
citadel to the shore of the sea, where, in a 
secluded cove, were boats or vessels ready 
to take him away. Having made these ar- 
rangements to secure his own safety, he 
proceeded to take such a course and adopt 
such measures as should tend most effectually 
to exasperate and offend the Persians, i n- 
tending to escape, himself, at the last 
moment, by this subterranean retreat, and 
to leave the inhabitants of the island at the 
mercv of their infuriated enemies. 



122 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

He had a brother whom he had shut up 
in a dungeon, and whose mind, naturally de- 
praved, and irritated by his injuries, was in 
a state of malignant and furious despair. 
Maeandrius had pretended to be willing to 
give up the island to the Persians. He had 
entered into negotiations with them for this 
purpose, and the Persians considered the 
treaty as in fact concluded. The leaders 
and officers of the army had assembled, ac- 
cordingly, before the citadel in a peaceful 
attitude, waiting merely for the completion 
of the forms of surrender, when Charilaus, 
Mseandrius's captive brother, saw them, by 
looking out between the bars of his window, 
in the tower in which he was confined. He 
sent an urgent message to Maeandrius, re- 
questing to speak to him. Maeandrius 
ordered the prisoner to be brought before 
him. The haggard and wretched-looking 
captive, rendered half insane by the com- 
bined influence of the confinement he had 
endured, and of the wild excitement pro- 
duced by the universal panic and confusion 
which reigned around him, broke forth 
against his brother in the boldest and most 
violent invectives. He reproached him in 
the most bitter terms for being willing to 
yield so ingloriously, and without a struggle, 
ibo an invading foe, whom he might easily 
repel. " You have courage and energy 
enough, it seems," said he, " to make war 
upon an innocent and defenseless brother, 
and to keep him for years in chains and in a 



THE REVOLT OF BABYLON. 128 

dungeon, but when an actual enemy appears, 
though he comes to despoil you of all your 
possessions, and to send you into hopeless 
exile, and though, if you had the ordinary 
courage and spirit of a man, you could 
easily drive him away, yet you dare not face 
him. If you are too cowardly and mean to 
do your duty yourself, give me your soldiers, 
and I will do it for you. I will drive these 
Persians back into the sea with as much 
pleasure as it would give me to drive you 
there ! " 

Such a nature as that of Maeanclrius can- 
not be stung into a proper sense of duty by 
reproaches like these. There seem to have 
been in his heart no moral sensibilities of 
any kind, and there could be, of course, no 
compunctions for the past, and no awaken- 
ing of new and better desires for the future. 
All the effect which was produced upon his 
mind by these bitter denunciations was to 
convince him that to comply with his 
brother's request would be to do the best 
thing now in his power for widening, and 
extending, and making sure the misery and 
mischief which were impending. He placed 
his troops, therefore, under his brother's 
orders ; and while the infuriated madman 
sallied forth at the head of them to attack 
the astonished Persians on one side of the 
citadel, Mseandrius made his escape through 
the underground passage on the other. 
The Persians were so exasperated at what 
appeared to them the basest treachery, that, 



124 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

as soon as they could recover their arms 
and get once more into battle array, they 
commenced a universal slaughter of the 
Samians. They spared neither age, sex, nor 
condition ; and when, at last, their vengeance 
was satisfied, and they put the island into 
Syloson's hands, and withdrew, he found 
himself in possession of an almost absolute 
solitude. 

It was while Otanes was absent on this 
enterprise, having with him a large part of 
the disposable forces of the king, that the 
Babylonians revolted. Darius was greatly 
incensed at hearing the tidings. Sovereigns 
are always greatly incensed at a revolt on 
the part of their subjects. The circum- 
stances of the case, whatever they may be, 
always seem to them to constitute a peculiar 
aggravation of the offense. Darius was in- 
dignant that the Babylonians had attempted 
to take advantage of his w r eakness, by re- 
belling when his armies were away. If 
they had risen when his armies were around 
him, he would have been equally indignant 
with them for having dared to brave his 
power. 

He assembled all the forces at his disposal, 
and advanced to Babylon. The people of 
the city shut their gates against him, and 
derided him. They danced and capered on 
the walls, making all sorts of gestures ex- 
pressive of contempt and defiance, accom- 
panied with shouts and outcries of ridicule 
and scorn. They had great confidence in 



THE REVOLT OF BABYLON. 125 

the strength of their defenses, and then, be- 
sides this, they probably regarded Darius as 
a sort of usurper, who had no legitimate 
title to the throne, and who would never be 
able to subdue any serious resistance which 
might be offered to the establishment of his 
power. It was from these considerations 
that they were emboldened to be guilty of 
the folly of taunting and insulting their foes 
from the city walls. 

Such incidents as this, of personal com- 
munications between masses of enemies on 
the eve of a battle, were very common in 
ancient warfare, though impossible in mod- 
ern times. In those days, when the mis- 
siles employed were thrown chiefly by the 
strength of the human arm alone, the com- 
batants could safely draw near enough to- 
gether for each side to hear the voices and 
to see the gesticulations of the other. Be- 
siegers could advance sufficiently close to a 
castle or citadel to parley insultingly with 
the garrison upon the walls, and yet be safe 
from the showers of darts and arrows which 
were projected toward them in return. But 
all this is now changed. The reach of can- 
non, and even of musketry, is so long, that 
combatants, approaching a conflict, are kept 
at a very respectful distance apart, until the 
time arrives in which the actual engagement 
is to begin. They reconnoiter each other 
with spy-glasses from watch-towers on the 
walls, or from eminences in the field, but 
they can hold no communication except by 



126 DARIUS THE GREA1\ 

a formal embassy, protected by a flag of 
truce, which, with its white and distant flut- 
tering, as it slowly advances over the green 
fields, warns the gunners at the battery or 
on the bastion to point their artillery an- 
other way. 

The Babylonians, on the walls of their 
city, reproached and taunted their foes in- 
cessantly. " Take our advice," said they, 
" and go back where you came from. You 
will only lose your time in besieging Baby- 
lon. When mules have foals, you will take 
the city, and not till then." 

The expression " when mules have foals " 
was equivalent in those days to our prover- 
bial phrase, " when the sky falls," being 
used to denote anything impossible or ab- 
surd, inasmuch as mules, like other hybrid 
animals, do not produce young. It was 
thought in those times absolutely impossible 
that they should do so ; but it is now well 
known that the case is not impossible, though 
very rare. 

It seems to have added very much to the 
interest of an historical narrative in the 
minds of the ancient Greeks, to have some 
prodigy connected with every great event ; 
and, in order to gratify this feeling, the 
writers appear in some instances to have 
fabricated a prodigy for the occasion, and 
in others to have elevated some unusual, 
though by no means superatural circuim 
stance, to the rank and importance of one. 
The prodigy connected with this siege of 



THE REVOLT OF BABYLON. 127 

Babylon was the foaling of a mule. The 
mule belonged to a general in the army of 
Darius, named Zopyrus. It was after Darius 
had been prosecuting the siege of the city 
for a year and a half, without any progress 
whatever toward the accomplishment of his 
end. The army began to despair of success. 
Zopyrus, with the rest, was expecting that 
the siege would be indefinitely prolonged, 
or, perhaps, absolutely abandoned, when his 
attention was strongly attracted to the 
phenomenon which had happened in respect 
to the mule. He remembered the taunt of 
the Babylonian on the wall, and it seemed 
to him that the whole occurrence portended 
that the time had now arrived when some 
way might be devised for the capture of the 
city. 

Portents and prophecies are often the 
causes of their own fulfilment, and this por- 
tent led Zopyrus to endeavor to devise some 
means to accomplish the end in view. He 
went first, however, to Darius, to converse 
with him upon the subject, with a view of 
ascertaining how far he was really desirous 
of bringing the siege to a termination. He 
wished to know whether the object was of 
sufficient importance in Darius's mind to 
warrant any great sacrifice on his own part 
to effect it. 

He found that it was so. Darius was ex- 
tremely impatient to end the siege and to 
capture the city ; and Zopyrus saw at once 
that, if he could in any way be the means 



128 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

of accomplishing the work, he should entitle 
himself, in the highest possible degree, to 
the gratitude of the king. 

He determined to go himself into Babylon 
as a pretended deserter from Darius, with a 
view to obtaining an influence and a com- 
mand within the city, which should enable 
him afterward to deliver it up to the be- 
siegers ; and, in order to convince the Baby- 
lonians that his desertion was real, he resolved 
to mutilate himself in a manner so dreadful 
as would effectually prevent their imagining 
that the injuries which he suffered were in- 
flicted by any connivance of his own. He 
accordingly cut off his hair and his ears, 
and mutilated his face in a manner too 
shocking to be here detailed, inflicting in- 
juries which could never be repaired. He 
caused himself to be scourged, also, until his 
whole body was covered with cuts and con- 
tusions. He then went, wounded and bleed- 
ing as he was, into the presence of Darius, 
to make known his plans. 

Darius expressed amazement and conster- 
nation at the terrible spectacle. He leaped 
from his throne and rushed toward Zopyrus, 
demanding who had dared to maltreat one 
of his generals in such a manner. When 
Zopyrus replied that he had himself done 
the deed, the king's astonishment was greater 
than before. He told Zopyrus that he was 
insane. Some sudden paroxysm of madness 
had come over him. Zopyrus replied that 
he was *not insane ; and he explained his 



THE REVOLT OF BABYLON. 129 

design. His plan, he said, was deliberately 
and calmly formed, and it should be steadily 
and faithfully executed. " I did not make 
known my design to you," said he, " before 
I had taken the preliminary steps, for I 
knew that you would prevent my taking 
them. It is now too late for that, and noth- 
ing remains but to reap, if possible, the ad- 
vantage which may be derived from what I 
have done." 

He then arranged with Darius the plans 
which he had formed, so far as he needed 
the co-operation of the king in the execu- 
tion of them. If he could gain a partial 
command in the Babylonian army, he was 
to make a sally from the city gates on a cer- 
tain day, and attack a portion of the Persian 
army, which Darius was to leave purposely 
exposed, in order that he might gain credit 
with the Babylonians by destroying them. 
From this he supposed that the confidence 
which the Babylonians would repose in him 
would increase, and he might consequently 
receive a greater command. Thus he might, 
by acting in concert with Darius without, 
gradually gain such an ascendency within 
the city as finally to have power" to open 
the gates and let the besiegers in. Darius 
was to station a detachment of a thousand 
men near a certain gate, leaving them im- 
perfectly armed, on the tenth day after Zo- 
pyrus entered the city. These Zopyrus was 
to destroy. Seven days afterward, two 
thousand more were to be stationed in a 



130 DAEITTS THE GREAT. 

similar manner at another point ; and these 
were also to be destroyed by a second sally. 
Twenty days after this, four thousand more 
were to be similarly exposed. Thus seven 
thousand innocent and defenseless men would 
be slaughtered, but that, as Zopyrus said, 
would be " of no consequence." The lives 
of men were estimated by heroes and con- 
querors in those days only at their numerical 
value in swelling the army roll. 

These things being all arranged, Zopyrus 
took leave of the king to go to Babylon. 
As he left the Persian camp, he began to 
run, looking round behind him continually, 
as if in flight. Some men, too, pretended 
to pursue him. He fled toward one of the 
gates of the city. The sentinels on the 
walls saw him coming. When he reached 
the gate, the porter inside of it talked with 
him through a small opening, and heard his 
story. The porter then reported the case 
to the superior officers, and they commanded 
that the fugitive should be admitted. When 
conducted into the presence of the magis- 
trates, he related a piteous story of the cruel 
treatment which he had received from Da- 
rius, and of the difficulty which he had ex- 
perienced in making his escape from the 
tyrant's hands. He uttered, too, dreadful 
imprecations against Darius, and expressed 
the most eager determination to be re- 
venged. He informed the Babylonians, 
moreover, that he was well acquainted with 
all Darius's plans and designs, and with the 



THE REVOLT OF BABYLON. 131 

disposition which he had made of his army ; 
and that, if they would, in a few days, when 
his wounds should have in some measure 
healed, give him a small command, he would 
show them, by actual trial, what he could 
do to aid their cause. 

They acceded to this proposition, and fur- 
nished Zopyrus, at the end of ten days, with 
a moderate force. Zopyrus, at the head of 
this force, sallied forth from the gate which 
had been previously agreed upon between 
him and Darius, and fell upon the unfor- 
tunate thousand that had been stationed 
there for the purpose of being destroyed. 
They were nearly defenseless, and Zopyrus, 
though his force was inferior, cut them all 
to pieces before they' could be reenforced or 
protected, and then retreated safely into the 
city again. He was received by the Baby- 
lonians with the utmost exultation and joy. 
He had no difficulty in obtaining, seven days 
afterward, the command of a larger force, 
when, sallying forth from another gate, as 
had been agreed upon by Darius, he gained 
another victory, destroying, on this occasion, 
twice as many Persians as before. These 
exploits gained the pretended deserter un- 
bounded fame and honor within the city. 
The populace applauded him with continual 
acclamations ; and the magistrates invited 
him to their councils, offered him high com- 
mand, and governed their own plans and 
measures by his advice. At length, on the 
twentieth day, he made his third sally, at 

10— Darius 



132 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

which time he destroyed and captured a still 
greater number than before. This gave him 
such an influence and position within the 
city, in respect to its defense, that he had 
no difficulty in getting intrusted with the 
keys of certain gates — those, namely, by 
which he had agreed that the army of Da- 
rius should be admitted. 

When the time arrived, the Persians ad- 
vanced to the attack of the city in that 
quarter, and the Babylonians rallied as 
usual on the walls to repel them. The con- 
test had scarcely begun before they found 
that the gates were open, and that the 
columns of the enemy were pouring in. 
The city was thus soon wholly at the mercy 
of the conqueror. Darius dismantled the 
walls, carried off the brazen gates, and cru- 
cified three thousand of the most distin- 
guished inhabitants ; then establishing over 
the rest a government of his own, he with- 
drew his troops and returned to Susa. He 
bestowed upon Zopyrus, at Susa, all possible 
rewards and honors. The marks of his 
wounds and mutilations could never be 
effaced, but Darius often said that he would 
gladly give up twenty Babylons to be able 
to efface them. 




CHAPTEK VIII. 



THE INVASION OF SCYTHIA. 

In the reigns of ancient monarchs and 
conquerors, it often happened that the first 
great transaction which called forth their 
energies was the suppression of a rebellion 
within their dominions, and the second, an 
expedition against some ferocious and half- 
savage nations beyond their frontiers. Da- 
rius followed this general example. The 
suppression of the Babylonian revolt estab- 
lished his authority throughout the whole 
interior of his empire. If that vast, and 
populous, and wealthy city was found un- 
able to resist his power, no other smaller 
province or capital could hope to succeed in 
the attempt. The whole empire of Asia, 
therefore, from the capital at Susa, out to 
the extreme limits and bounds to which Cy- 
rus had extended it, yielded without any 
further opposition to his sway. He felt 
strong in his position, and being young and 
ardent in temperament, he experienced a de- 
sire to exercise his strength. For some rea- 
son or other, he seems to have been not quite 
prepared yet to grapple with the Greeks, 
and he concluded, accordingly, first to test 

133 



134 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

his powers in respect to foreign invasion by 
a war upon the Scythians. This was an un- 
dertaking which required some courage and 
resolution ; for it was while making an in- 
cursion into the country of the Scythians 
that Cyrus, his renowned predecessor, and 
the founder of the Persian empire, had 
fallen. 

The term Scythians seems to have been a 
generic designation, applied indiscriminately 
to vast hordes of half-savage tribes occupy- 
ing those wild and inhospitable regions of 
the north, that extended along the shores of 
the Black and Caspian Seas, and the banks 
of the Danube. The accounts which are 
given by the ancient historians of the man- 
ners and customs of these people, are very 
inconsistent and contradictory ; as, in fact, 
the accounts of the characters of savages, 
and of the habits and usages of savage life, 
have always been in every age. It is very 
little that any one cultivated observer can 
really know, in respect to the phases of 
character, the thoughts and feelings, the 
sentiments, the principles and the faith, and 
even the modes of life, that prevail among 
uncivilized aborigines living in forests, or 
roaming wildly over uninclosed and track- 
less plains. Of those who have the oppor- 
tunity to observe them, accordingly, some 
extol, in the highest degree, their rude but 
charming simplicity, their truth and faith- 
fulness, the strength of their filial and con- 
jugal affection, and their superiority of spirit 



THE INVASION OF SCYTHIA. 135 

in rising above the sordid sentiments and 
gross vices of civilization. They are not the 
slaves, these writers say, of appetite and pas- 
sion. They have no inordinate love of gain ; 
they are patient in enduring suffering, 
grateful for kindness received, and inflexibly 
firm in their adherence to the principles of 
honor and duty. Others, on the other hand, 
see in savage life nothing but treachery, 
cruelty, brutality, and crime. Man in his 
native state, as they imagine, is but a beast, 
with just intelligence enough to give effect 
to his depravity. Without natural affection, 
without truth, without a sense of justice, or 
the means of making law a substitute for it, 
he lives in a scene of continual conflict, in 
which the rights of the weak and the de- 
fenseless are always overborne -by brutal 
and tyrannical power. 

The explanation of this diversity is doubt- 
less this, that in savage life, as well as in 
every other state of human society, all the 
varieties of human conduct and character 
are exhibited ; and the attention of each ob- 
server is attracted to the one or to the other 
class of phenomena, according to the circum- 
stances in which he is placed when he makes 
his observations, or the mood of mind which 
prevails w T ithin him when he records them. 
There must be the usual virtues of social life, 
existing in a greater or less degree, in all 
human communities ; for such principles as 
a knowledge of the distinction of right and 
wrong, the idea of property and of individ- 



136 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

ual rights, the obligation resting on every 
one to respect them, the sense of justice, and 
of the ill desert of violence and cruelty, are 
all universal instincts of the human soul, as 
universal and as essential to humanity as 
maternal or filial affection, or the principle 
of conjugal love. They were established by 
the great Author of nature as constituent 
elements in the formation of man. Man 
could not continue to exist, as a gregarious 
animal, without them. It would accord- 
ingly be as impossible to find a community of 
men without these moral sentiments gener- 
ally prevalent among them, as to find vul- 
tures or tigers that did not like to pursue 
and take their prey, or deer without a pro- 
pensity to fly from danger. The laws and 
usages of civilized society are the expression 
and the result of these sentiments, not the 
origin and foundation of them ; and violence, 
cruelty, and crime are the exceptions to 
their operation, very few, in all communi- 
ties, savage or civilized, in comparison with 
the vast preponderance of cases in which 
they are obeyed. 

This view of the native constitution of 
the human character, which it is obvious, on 
very slight reflection, must be true, is not at 
all opposed, as it might at first appear to be, 
by the doctrine of the theological writers in 
the Christian Church in respect to the native 
depravity of man ; for the depravity here re- 
ferred to is a religious depravity, an aliena- 
tion of the heart from God, and a rebellious 



THE INVASION OF SCYTHIA. 137 

and insubmissive spirit in respect to his law. 
Neither the Scriptures nor the theological 
writers who interpret them ever call in ques- 
tion the universal existence and prevalence 
of those instincts that are essential to the 
social welfare of man. 

But we must return to the Scythians. 

The tribes which Darius proposed to at- 
tack occupied the countries north of the Dan- 
ube. His route, therefore, for the invasion 
of their territories, would lead him through 
Asia Minor, thence across the Hellespont or 
the Bosporus into Thrace, and from Thrace 
across the Danube. It was a distant and 
dangerous expedition. 

Darius had a brother named Artabanus. 
Artabanus was of opinion that the enter- 
prise which the king was contemplating was 
not only distant and dangerous, but that 
the country of the Scythians was of so little 
value that the end to be attained by success 
would be wholly inadequate to compensate 
for the exertions, the costs, and the hazards 
which he must necessarily incur in the pros- 
ecution of it. But Darius was not to be 
dissuaded. He thanked his brother for his 
advice, but ordered the preparations for the 
expedition to go on. 

He sent emissaries forward, in advance, 
over the route that his army was destined to 
take, transmitting orders to the several prov- 
inces which were' situated on the line of his 
march to prepare the way for the passage 
of his troops. Among other preparations, 



138 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

they were to construct a bridge of boats 
across the Bosporus at Chalcedon. This 
work was intrusted to the charge and super- 
intendence of an engineer of Samos named 
Mandrocles. The people of the provinces 
were also to furnish bodies of troops, both 
infantry and cavalry, to join the army on its 
march. 

The soldiers that were enlisted to go on 
this remote and dangerous expedition joined 
the army, as is usual in such cases, some 
willingly, from love of adventure, or the 
hope of opportunities for plunder, and for 
that unbridled indulgence of appetite and 
passion which soldiers so often look forward 
to as a part of their reward ; others from 
hard compulsion, being required to leave 
friends and home, and all that they held 
dear, under the terror of a stern and des- 
potic edict which they dared not disobey. 
It was even dangerous to ask for exemption. 

As an instance of this, it is said that there 
was a Persian named (Ebazus, who had three 
sons that had been drafted into the army. 
(Ebazus, desirous of not being left wholly 
alone in his old age, made a request to the 
king that he would, allow one of the sons to 
remain at home with his father. Darius 
appeared to receive this petition favorably. 
He told (Ebazus that the request was so very 
modest and considerate that he would grant 
more than he asked. He would allow all 
three of his sons to remain with him. 
(Ebazus retired from the king's presence 



THE INVASION OF SCYTHIA. 139 

overjoyed at the thought that his family 
was not to be separated at all. Darius or- 
dered his guards to kill the three young men, 
and to send the dead bodies home, with a 
message to their father that his sons were 
restored to him, released forever from all 
obligation to serve the king. 

The place of general rendezvous for the 
various forces which were to join in the 
expedition, consisting of the army which 
marched with Darius from Susa, and also of 
the troops and ships which the maritime 
provinces of Asia Minor were to supply on 
the way, was on the shores of the Bosporus, 
at the point where Mandrocles had con- 
structed the bridge.* The people of Ionia, 
a region situated in Asia Minor, on the 
shores of the iEgean Sea, had been ordered 
to furnish a fleet of galleys, which they were 
to build and equip, and then send to the 
bridge. The destination of this fleet was to 
the Danube. It was to pass up the Bosporus 
into the Euxine Sea, now called the Black 
Sea, and thence into the mouth of the river. 
After ascending the Danube to a certain 
point, the men were to land and build a 
bridge across that river, using, very prob- 
ably, their galleys for this purpose. In the 
mean time, the army was to cross the Bos- 
porus by the bridge which had been erected 
there by Mandrocles, and pursue their way 
toward the Danube by land, through the 

* For the track of Darius on this expedition, see 
the map facing page 70. 



140 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

kingdom of Thrace. By this arrangement, 
it was supposed that the bridge across the 
Danube would be ready by the time that the 
main body of the army arrived on the banks 
of the river. The idea of thus building in 
Asia Minor a bridge for the Danube, in the 
form of a vast fleet of galleys, to be sent 
round through the Black Sea to the mouths 
of the river, and thence up the river to its 
place of destination, was original and grand. 
It strikingly marks the military genius and 
skill which gave the Greeks so extended a 
fame, for it was by the Greeks that the ex- 
ploit was to be performed. 

Darius marched magnificently through 
Asia Minor, on his way to the Bosporus, at 
the head of an army of seventy thousand 
men. He moved slowlv, and the engineers 
and architects that accompanied him built 
columns and monuments here and there, as 
he advanced, to commemorate his progress. 
These structures were covered with inscrip- 
tions, which ascribed to Darius, as the leader 
of the enterprise, the most extravagant 
praise. At length the splendid array ar- 
rived at the place of rendezvous on the Bos- 
porus, where there was soon presented to 
view a very grand and imposing scene. 

The bridge of boats was completed, and the 
Ionian fleet, consisting of six hundred gal- 
leys, was at anchor near it, in the stream. 
Long lines of tents were pitched upon the 
shore, and thousands of horsemen and of 
foot soldiers were drawn up in array, their 



THE INVASION OF SCYTIJIA. 141 

banners flying, and their armor glittering 
in the sun, and all eager to see and to wel- 
come the illustrious sovereign who had come, 
with so much pomp and splendor, to take 
them under his command. The banks of 
the Bosporus were picturesque and high, and 
all the eminences were crowded with spec- 
tators, to witness the imposing magnificence 
of the spectacle. 

Darius encamped his army on the shore, 
and began to make the preparations neces- 
sary for the final departure of the expedi- 
tion. He had been thus far within his own 
dominions. He was now, however, to pass 
into another quarter of the globe, to plunge 
into new and unknown dangers, among hos- 
tile, savage, and ferocious tribes. It was 
right that he should pause until he had con- 
sidered well his plans, and secured attention 
to every point which could influence success. 

He first examined the bridge of boats. 
He was very much pleased with the con- 
struction of it. He commended Mandrocles 
for his skill and fidelity in the highest terms, 
and loaded him with rewards and honors. 
Mandrocles used the money which Darius 
thus gave him in employing an artist to form 
a piece of statuary which should at once 
commemorate the building of the bridge and 
give to Darius the glory of it. The group 
represented the Bosporus with the bridge 
thrown over it, and the king on his throne 
reviewing his troops as they passed over the 
structure. This statuary was placed, when 



142 DAHIUS THE GREAT. 

finished, in a temple in Greece, where it was 
universally admired. Darius was very much 
pleased both with the idea of this sculpture 
on the part of Mandrocles, and with the ex- 
ecution of it by the artist. Pie gave the 
bridge builder new rewards; he recom- 
pensed the artist, also, with similar munifi- 
cence. He was pleased that they had con- 
trived so happy a way of at the same time 
commemorating the bridging of the Bos- 
porus and rendering exalted honor to him. 

The bridge was situated about the middle 
of the Bosporus ; and as the strait itself is 
about eighteen miles long, it was nine miles 
from the bridge to the Euxine Sea. There 
is a small group of islands near the mouth 
of this strait, where it opens into the sea, 
which were called in those days the Cyanean 
Islands. They were famed in the time of 
Darius for having once been floating islands, 
and enchanted. Their supernatural prop- 
erties had disappeared, but there was one 
attraction which still pertained to them. 
They were situated beyond the limits of the 
strait, and the visitor who landed upon them 
could take his station on some picturesque 
cliff or smiling hill, and extend his view far 
and wide over the blue waters of the Eux- 
ine Sea. 

Darius determined to make an excursion 
to these islands while the fleet and the army 
were completing their preparations at the 
bridge. He embarked, accordingly, on board 
a splendid galley, and, sailing along the Bos- 



THE INVASION OF SCYTHIA. 143 

porus till he reached the sea, he landed on 
one of the islands. There was a temple 
there, consecrated to one of the Grecian 
deities. Darius, accompanied by his attend- 
ants and followers, ascended to this temple, 
and, taking a seat which had been provided 
for him there, he surveyed the broad ex- 

Eanse of water which extended like an ocean 
efore him, and contemplated the grandeur 
of the scene with the greatest admiration 
and delight. 

At length he returned to the bridge, where 
he found the preparations for the move- 
ment of the fleet and of the army nearly 
completed. He determined, before leaving 
the Asiatic shores, to erect a monument to 
commemorate his expedition, on the spot 
from which he was to take his final departure. 
He accordingly directed two columns of 
white marble to be reared, and inscriptions 
to be cut upon them, giving such particulars 
in respect to the expedition as it was desirable 
thus to preserve. These inscriptions con- 
tained his own name in very conspicuous 
characters as the leader of the enterprise; 
also an enumeration of the various nations, 
that had contributed to form his army, 
with the numbers which each had furnished 
There was a record of corresponding par- 
ticulars, too, in respect to the fleet. The 
inscriptions were the same upon the two 
columns, except that upon the one it was 
written in the Assyrian tongue, which was the 
general language of the Persian empire, and 



144 DAEIUS THE GREAT. 

upon the other in the Greek. Thus the two 
monuments were intended, the one for the 
Asiatic, and the other for the European 
world. 

At length the day of departure arrived. 
The fleet set sail, and the immense train of 
the army put itself in motion to cross the 
bridge. The fleet went on through the 
Bosporus to the Euxine, and thence along 
the western coast of that sea till it reached 
the mouths of the Danube. The ships en- 
tered the river by one of the branches which 
form the delta of the stream, and ascended 
for two days. This carried them above the 
ramifications into which the river divides it- 
self at its mouth, to a spot where the current 
was confined to a single channel, and where 
the banks were firm. Here they landed, and 
while one part of the force which they had 
brought were occupied in organizing guards 
and providing defenses to protect the ground, 
the remainder commenced the work of ar- 
ranging the vessels of the fleet, side by side, 
across the stream, to form the bridge. 

In the mean time, Darius leading the great 
body of the army, advanced from the Bosporus 
by land. The country which the troops thus 
traversed was Thrace. They met with vari- 
ous adventures as they proceeded, and saw, 
as the accounts of the expedition state, many 
strange and marvelous phenomena. They 
came, for example, to the sources of a very 
wonderful river, which flows west and south 



THE INVASION OF SCYTHIA. 145 

toward the iEgean Sea. The name of the 
river was the Tearus. It came from thirty- 
eight springs, all issuing from the same rock, 
some hot and some cold. The waters of the 
stream which was produced by the mingling 
of these fountains were pure, limpid, and 
delicious, and were possessed of remarkable 
medicinal properties, being efficacious for the 
cure of various diseases. Darius was so 
much pleased with this river, that his army 
halted to refresh themselves with its waters, 
and he caused one of his monuments to be 
erected on the spot, the inscription of which 
contained not only the usual memorials of 
the march, but also a tribute to the salubrity 
of the water of this magical stream. 

At one point in the course of the march 
through Thrace, Darius conceived the idea of 
varying the construction of his line of monu- 
ments by building a cairn. A cairn is a heap 
of stones, such as is reared in the mountains 
of Scotland and of Switzerland by the vol- 
untary additions of every passer by, to com- 
memorate a spot marked as the scene of some 
accident or disaster. As each guide finishes 
the story of the incident in the hearing of 
the party which he conducts, each tourist 
who has listened to it adds his stone to the 
heap, until the rude structure attains some- 
times to a very considerable size. Darius, 
fixing upon a suitable spot near one of his 
encampments, commanded every soldier in 
the army to bring a stone and place it on the 
pile. A vast mound rose rapidly from these 

11— Darius 



146 DAEIUS THE GREAT. 

contributions, which, when completed, not 
only commemorated the march of the army, 
but denoted, also, by the immense number of 
the stones entering into the composition of 
the piles, the countless multitude of soldiers 
that formed the expedition. 

There was a story told to Darius, as he was 
traversing these regions, of a certain king, 
reigning over some one of the nations that 
occupied them, who wished to make an 
enumeration of the inhabitants of his realm. 
The mode which he adopted was to require 
every man in his dominions to send him an 
arrow head. When all the arrow heads were 
in, the vast collection was counted by the 
official arithmeticians, and the total of the 
population was thus attained. The arrow 
heads were then laid together in a sort of 
of monumental pile. It was, perhaps, this 
primitive mode of census-taking which sug- 
gested to Darius the idea of his cairn. 

There was a tribe of barbarians through 
whose dominions Darius passed on his way 
from the Bosporus to the Danube, that ob- 
served a custom in their religious worship, 
which, though in itself of a shocking char- 
acter, suggests reflections of salutary in- 
fluence for our own minds. There is a uni- 
versal instinct in the human heart, leading 
it strongly to feel the need of help from an 
unseen and supernatural world in its sorrows 
and trials ; and it is almost always the case 
that rude and savage nations, in their attempts 
to obtain this spiritual aid, connect the idea 



THE INVASION OF SCYTHIA. H7 

of personal privation and suffering on their 
part, self inflicted if necessary, as a means of 
seeking it. It seems as if the instinctive 
conviction of personal guilt, which associates 
itselt so naturally and so strongly in the 
minds of men with all conceptions of the un- 
seen world and of divine power, demands 
something like an expiation as an essential 
prerequisite to obtaining audience and ac- 
ceptance with the King of Heaven. The 
tribe of savages above referred to manifested 
this feeling by a dreadful observance. Once 
in every five years they were accustomed to 
choose by lot, with solemn ceremonies one of 
their number, to be sent as a legate or am- 
bassador to their god. The victim, when 
chosen, was laid down upon the ground in 
the midst of the vast assemblv convened to 
witness the rite, while officers designated for 
the purpose stood by, armed with javelins. 
Other men, selected for their great personal 
strength, then took the man from the 
ground by the hand and feet and swino-ino- 
him to and fro three times to gain momentum! 
they threw him with all their force into the 
air, and the armed men, when he came down 
caught him on the points of their iavelins! 
If he was killed by this- dreadful impalement, 
all was right. He would bear the message 
of the wants and necessities of the tribe to 
their god, and they might reasonablv expect 
a favorable reception. If, on the ottier hand 
he did not die, he was thought to be rejected 
by the god as a wicked man and an unsuit- 



148 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

able messenger. The unfortunate conva- 
lescent was, in such cases, dismissed in dis- 
grace and another messenger chosen. 

The army of Darius reached the banks of 
the Danube at last, and they found that the 
fleet of the lonians had attained the point 
agreed upon before them, and were awaiting 
their arrival. The vessels were soon arranged 
in the form of a bridge across the stream, 
and as there was no enemy at hand to em- 
barrass them, the army soon accomplished 
the passage. They were now fairly in the 
Scythian country, and immediately began 
their preparations to advance and meet the 
foe. Darius gave orders to have the bridge 
broken up, and the galleys abandoned and 
destroyed, as he chose rather to take with 
him the whole of his force than to leave a 
guard behind sufficient to protect this ship- 
ping. These orders were about to be exe- 
cuted, when a Grecian general, who was at- 
tached to one of the bodies of troops which 
were furnished from the provinces of Asia 
Minor, asked leave to speak to the king. 
The king granted him an audience, when he 
expressed his opinion as follows : 

" It seems to me to be more prudent, sire, 
to leave the bridge as it is, under the care of 
those who have constructed it, as it may be 
that we shall have occasion to use it on our 
return. I do not recommend the preserva- 
tion of it as a means of securing a retreat, 
for, in case we meet the Scythians at all, I 
am confident of victory ; but our enemy con- 



THE INVASION OF SCYTHIA. 149 

sists of wandering hordes who have no fixed 
habitation, and their country is entirely 
without cities or posts of any kind which 
they will feel any strong interest in defend- 
ing, and thus it is possible that we may not 
be able to find any enemy to combat. Be- 
sides, if we succeed in our enterprise as com- 
pletely as we can desire, it will be important, 
on many accounts, to preserve an open and 
free communication with the countries be- 
hind us." 

The king approved of this counsel, and 
countermanded his orders for the destruction 
of the bridge. He directed that the Ionian 
forces that had accompanied the fleet should 
remain at the river to guard the bridge. 
They were to remain thus on guard for two 
months, and then, if Darius did not return, 
and if they heard no tidings of him, they were 
at liberty to leave their post, and to go back, 
with their galleys, to their own land again. 
^ Two months would seem to be a very short 
time to await the return of an army going on 
such an expedition into boundless and track- 
less wilds. There can, however, scarcely 
be any accidental error in the statement 
of the time, as the mode which Darius 
adopted to enable the guard thus left at the 
bridge to keep their reckoning was a very 
singular one, and it is very particularly de- 
scribed. He took a cord, it is said, and tied 
sixty knots in it. This cord he delivered to 
the Ionian chiefs who were to be left in 
charge of the bridge, directing them to untie 



150 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

one of the knots every day. When the cord 
should become, by this process, wholly free, 
the detachment were also at liberty. They 
might thereafter, at any time, abandon the 
post intrusted to them, and return to their 
homes. 

We cannot suppose that military men, 
capable of organizing a force of seventy 
thousand troops for so distant an expedition, 
and possessed of sufficient science and skill 
to bridge the Bosporus and the Danube, 
could have been under any necessity of 
adopting so childish a method as this as a 
real reliance in regulating their operations. 
It must be recollected, however, that, though 
the commanders in these ancient days were 
intelligent and strong-minded men, the com- 
mon soldiers were but children both in intel- 
lect and in ideas ; and it was the custom of 
all great commanders to employ outward 
and visible symbols to influence and govern 
them. The sense of loneliness and desertion 
which such soldiers would naturally feel in 
being left in solitude on the banks of the 
river, would be much diminished by seeing 
before them a marked and definite termina- 
tion to the period of their stay, and to have, 
in the cord hanging up in their camp, a 
visible token that the remnant of time that 
remained was steadily diminishing, day by 
day ; while, in the mean time, Darius was 
fully determined that, long before the knots 
should be all untied, he would return to the 
river. 




CHAPTER IX. 



THE RETREAT FROM SCYTHIA. 

The motive which dictated Darius's inva- 
sion of Scythia seems to have been purely 
a selfish and domineering love of power. 
The attempts of a stronger and more highly 
civilized state to extend its dominion over a 
weaker and more lawless one are not, how- 
ever, necessarily and always of this char- 
acter. Divine Providence, in making men 
gregarious in nature, has given them an 
instinct of organization, which is as intrinsic 
and as essential a characteristic of the 
human soul as maternal love or the principle 
of self-preservation. The right, therefore, 
of organizations of men to establish law and 
order among themselves, and to extend these 
principles to other communities around 
them, so far as such interpositions are really 
promotive of the interests and welfare of 
those affected by them, rests on precisely 
the same foundation as the right of the 
father to govern the child. This foundation 
is the existence and universality of an in- 
stinctive principle implanted by the Creator 
in the human heart ; a principle which we 

151 



162 DARIUS THE GBEAT. 

are bound to submit to, both because it is a 
fundamental and constituent element in the 
very structure of man, and because its rec- 
ognition and the acknowledgment of its 
authority are absolutely essential to his con- 
tinued existence. Wherever law and order, 
therefore, among men do not exist, it may 
be properly established and enforced by any 
neighboring organization that has power to 
do it, just as wherever there is a group of 
children they may be justly controlled and 
governed by their father. It seems equally 
unnecessary to invent a fictitious and wholly 
imaginary compact to justify the jurisdiction 
in the one case as in the other. 

If the Scythians, therefore, had been in a 
state of confusion and anarchy, Darius might 
justly have extended his own well-regu- 
lated and settled government over them, 
and, in so doing, would have promoted the 
general good of mankind. But he had no 
such design. It was a desire for personal 
aggrandizement, and a love of fame and 
power, which prompted him. He offered it 
as a pretext to justify his invasion, that the 
Scythians, in former years, had made incur- 
sions into the Persian dominions ; but this 
was only a pretext. The expedition was a 
wanton attack upon neighbors whom he 
supposed unable to resist him, simply for 
the purpose of adding to his own already 
gigantic power. 

When Darius commenced his march from 
the river, the Scythians had heard rumors 



THE RETREAT FROM SCYTUIA. 153 

of his approach. They sent, as soon as they 
were aware of the impending danger, to all 
the nations and tribes around them, in order 
to secure their alliance and aid. These 
people were all wandering and half-savage 
tribes, like the Scythians themselves, though 
each seems to have possessed its own special 
and distinctive mark of barbarity. One 
tribe were accustomed to carry home the 
heads of the enemies which they had slain 
in battle, and each one, impaling his own 
dreadful trophy upon a stake, would set it 
up upon his house-top, over the chimney, 
where they imagined that it would have the 
effect of a charm, and serve as a protection 
for the family. Another tribe lived in 
habits of promiscuous intercourse, like the 
lower orders of animals; and so, as the 
historian absurdly states, being, in conse- 
quence of this mode of life, all connected 
together by the ties of consanguinity, they 
lived in perpetual peace and good will, with- 
out any envy, or jealousy, or other evil 
passion. A third occupied a region so 
infested with serpents that they were once 
driven wholly out of the country by them. 
It was said of these people that, once in 
every year, they were all metamorphosed 
into wolves, and, after remaining for a few 
days in this form, they were transformed 
again into men. A fourth tribe painted 
their bodies blue and red, and a fifth were 
cannibals. 

The most remarkable, however, of all the 



154 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

tales related about these northern savages 
was the story of the Sauromateans and 
their Amazonian wives. The Amazons 
were a nation of masculine and ferocious 
women, who often figure in ancient histories 
and legends. They rode on horseback astride 
like men, and their courage and strength in 
battle were such that scarcely any troops 
could subdue them. It happened, however, 
upon one time, that some Greeks conquered 
a body of them somewhere upon the shores 
of the Euxine Sea, and took a large number 
of them prisoners. They placed these 
prisoners on board of three ships, and put 
to sea. The Amazons rose upon their 
captors and threw them overboard, and thus 
obtained possession of the ships. They 
immediately proceeded toward the shore, 
and landed, not knowing where they were. 
It happened to be on the northwestern 
coast of the sea that they landed. Here 
they roamed up and down the country, until 
presently they fell in with a troop of horses. 
These they seized and mounted, arming 
themselves, at the same time, either with 
4:he weapons which they had procured on 
board the ships, or fabricated, themselves, on 
the shore. Thus organized and equipped, 
they began to make excursions for plunder, 
and soon became a most formidable band of 
marauders. The Scythians of the country 
supposed that they were men, but they 
could learn nothing certain respecting them. 
Their language, their appearance, their 



THE RETREAT FROM SCYTIIIA. 155 

manners, and their dress were totally new, 
and the inhabitants were utterly unable to 
conceive who they were, and from what 
place they could so suddenly and mysteri- 
ously have come. 

At last, in one of the encounters which 
took place, the Scythians took two of these 
strange invaders prisoners. To their utter 
amazement, they found that they were 
women. On making this discovery, they 
changed their mode of dealing with them, 
and resolved upon a plan, based on the sup- 
posed universality of the instincts of their 
sex. They enlisted a corps of the most hand- 
some and vigorous young men that could be 
obtained, and after giving them instructions, 
the nature of which will be learned by the 
result, they sent them forth to meet the 
Amazons. 

The corps of Scythian cavaliers went out 
to seek their female antagonists with designs 
anything bat belligerent. They advanced 
to the encampment of the Amazons, and 
hovered about for some time in their vicinity, 
without, however, making any warlike dem- 
onstrations. They had been instructed to 
show themselves as much as possible to the 
enemy, but by no means to light them. 
They would, accordingly, draw as near to 
the Amazons as was safe, and linger there, 
gazing upon them, as if under the influence 
of some sort of fascination. If the Amazons 
advanced toward them, they would fall back, 
and if the advance continued they would re- 



156 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

treat fast enough to keep effectually out of the 
way. Then, when the Amazons turned, they 
would turn too, follow them back, and linger 
near them, around their encampment, as 
before. 

The Amazonians were for a time puzzled 
with this strange demeanor, and they grad- 
ually learned to look upon the handsome 
horsemen at first without fear, and finally 
even without hostility. At length, one day, 
one of the young horsemen, observing an 
Amazon who had strayed away from the rest, 
followed and joined her. She did not repel 
him. They were not able to converse to- 
gether, as neither knew the language of the 
other. They established a friendly inter- 
course, however, by looks and signs, and 
after a time they separated, each agreeing 
to bring one of their companions to the place 
of rendezvous on the following day. 

A friendly intercommunication being thus 
commenced, the example spread very rapidly ; 
matrimonial alliances began to be formed, 
and, in a word, a short time only elapsed be- 
fore the two camps were united and inter- 
mingled, the Scythians and the Amazons 
being all paired together in the most intimate 
relations of domestic life. Thus, true to the 
instincts of their sex, the rude and terrible 
maidens decided, when the alternative was 
fairly presented to them, in favor of husbands 
and homes, rather than continuing the life 
they had led, of independence, conflict, and 
plunder. It is curious to observe that the 



THE RETREAT FROM SCYTHIA. 157 

means by which they were won, namely, a 
persevering display of admiration and at- 
tentions, steadily continued, but not too 
eagerly or impatiently pressed, and varied 
with an adroit and artful alternation of 
advances and retreats, were precisely the 
same as those by which, in every age, the 
attempt is usually made to win the heart 
of woman from hatred and hostility to 
love. 

We speak of the Amazonians as having 
been won ; but they were, in fact, themselves 
the conquerors of their captors, after all ; 
for it appeared, in the end, that in the future 
plans and arrangements of the united body, 
they ruled their Scythian husbands, and not 
the Scythians them. The husbands wished 
to return home with their wives, whom, they 
said, they would protect and maintain in the 
midst of their countrymen in honor and in 
peace. The Amazons, however, were in favor 
of another plan. Their habits and manners 
were such, they said, that they should not 
be respected and beloved among any other 
people. They wished that their husbands, 
therefore, would go home and settle their 
affairs, and afterward return and join their 
wives again, and then that all together should 
move to the eastward until they should 
find a suitable place to settle in by them- 
selves. This plan was acceded to by the 
husbands, and was carried into execution ; 
and the result was the planting of a new 
nation, called the Sauromateans, who thence- 



158 DAEIUS THE GREAT. 

forth took their place among the other bar- 
barous tribes that dwelt upon the northern 
shores of the Euxine Sea. 

Such was the character of the tribes and 
nations that dwelt in the neighborhood of 
the Scythian country. As soon as Darius 
had passed the river, the Scythians sent am- 
bassadors to all their people, proposing to 
them to form a general alliance against the 
invader. " We ought to make common 
cause against him," said they ; " for if he 
subdues one nation, it will only open the 
way for an attack upon the rest. Some of 
us are, it is true, more remote than others 
from the immediate danger, but it threatens 
us all equally in the end." 

The ambassadors delivered their message, 
and some of the tribes acceded to the Scy- 
thian proposals. Others, however, refused. 
The quarrel, they said, was a quarrel between 
Darius and the Scythians alone, and they 
were not inclined to bring upon themselves 
the hostility of so powerful a sovereign by 
interfering. The Scythians were very in- 
dignant at this refusal ; but there was no 
remedy, and they accordingly began to pre- 
pare to defend themselves as well as they 
could, with the help of those nations that 
had expressed a willingness to join them. 

The habits of the Scythians were nomadic 
and wandering, and their country was one 
vast region of verdant and beautiful, and 
yet, in a great measure, of uncultivated and 
trackless wilds. They had few towns and 



THE RETREAT FROM SCYTHIA. 159 

villages, and those few were of little value. 
They adopted, therefore, the mode of war- 
fare which, in such a country and for such 
a people, is always the wisest to be pursued. 
They retreated slowly before Darius's ad- 
vancing army, carrying off or destroying all 
such property as might aid the king in re- 
spect to his supplies. They organized and 
equipped a body of swift horsemen, who 
were ordered to hover around Darius's 
camp, and bring intelligence to the Scythian 
generals of every movement. These horse- 
men, too, were to harass the flanks and the 
rear of the army, and to capture or destroy 
every man whom they should find straying 
away from the camp. By this means they 
kept the invading army continually on the 
alert, allowing them no peace and no repose, 
while yet they thwarted and counteracted 
all the plans and efforts which the enemy 
made to bring on a general battle. 

As the Persians advanced in pursuit of 
the enemy, the Scythians retreated, and in 
this retreat they directed their course toward 
the countries occupied by those nations that 
had refused to join in the alliance. By this 
artful management they transferred the 
calamity and the burden of the war to the 
territories of their neighbors. Darius soon 
found that he was making no progress 
toward gaining his end. At length he con- 
cluded to try the effect of a direct and open 
challenge. 

He accordingly sent ambassadors to the 



160 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

Scythian chief, whose name was Indathyrsus, 
with a message somewhat as follows : 

"Foolish man! how long will you con- 
tinue to act in this absurd and preposterous 
manner ? It is incumbent on you to make 
a decision in favor of one thing or the other. 
If you think that you are able to contend 
with me, stop, and let us engage. If not, 
then acknowledge me as your superior, and 
submit to my authority." 

The Scythian chief sent back the follow- 
ing reply: 

" We have no inducement to contend with 
you in open battle on the field, because you 
are not doing us any injury, nor is it at 
present in your power to do us any. "We 
have no cities and no cultivated fields that 
you can seize or plunder. Your roaming 
about our country, therefore, does us no 
harm, and you are at liberty to continue it 
as long as it gives you any pleasure. There 
is nothing on our soil that you can injure, 
except one spot, and that is the place where 
the sepulchers of our fathers lie. If you 
were to attack that spot — which you may 
perhaps do, if you can find it — you may rely 
upon a battle. In the mean time, you may 
go elsewhere, wherever you please. As to 
acknowledging your superiority, we shall do 
nothing of the kind. We defy you." 

Notwithstanding the refusal of the Scy- 
thians to give the Persians battle, they yet 
made, from time to time, partial and unex- 
pected onsets upon their camp, seizing oc- 



THE RETREAT FROM SCYTHIA. 161 

casions when they hoped to find their 
enemies off their guard. The Scythians 
had troops of cavalry which were very ef- 
ficient and successful in these attacks. These 
horesemen were, however, sometimes thrown 
into confusion and driven back by a very 
singular means of defense. It seems that 
the Persians had brought with them from 
Europe, in their train, a great number of 
asses, as beasts of burden, to transport the 
tents and the baggage of the army. These 
asses were accustomed, in times of excite- 
ment and danger, to set up a very terrific 
braying. It was, in fact, all that they could 
do. Braying at a danger seems to be a 
very ridiculous mode of attempting to avert 
it, but it was a tolerably effectual mode, 
nevertheless, in this case at least ; for the 
Scythian horses, who would have faced 
spears and javelins, and the loudest shouts 
and vociferation of human adversaries with- 
out any fear, were appalled and put to flight 
at hearing the unearthly noises which issued 
from the Persian camp whenever they ap- 
proached it. Thus the mighty monarch of 
the whole Asiatic world seemed to depend 
for protection against the onsets of these 
rude and savage troops on the braying of 
his asses ! 

While these things were going on in the 
interior of the country, the Scythians sent 
down a detachment of their forces to the 
banks of the Danube, to see if they could not, 
in some way or other, obtain possession of 

1 2 — Darius 



162 DABIUS THE GREAT. 

the bridge. They learned here what the 
orders were which Darius had given to the 
Ionians who had been left in charge, in re- 
spect to the time of their remaining at their 
post. The Scythians told them that if they 
would govern themselves strictly by those 
orders, and so break up the bridge and go 
down the river with their boats as soon as 
the two months should have expired, they 
should not be molested in the mean time. 
The Ionians agreed to this. The time was 
then already nearly gone, and they promised 
that, so soon as it should be fully expired, 
they would withdraw. 

The Scythian detachment sent back word 
to the main army acquainting them with 
these facts, and the army accordingly re- 
solved on a change in their policy. Instead of 
harassing and distressing the Persians as they 
had done, to hasten their departure, they now 
determined to improve the situation of their 
enemies, and encourage them in their hopes, 
so as to protract their stay. They accord- 
ingly allowed the Persians to gain the ad- 
vantage over them in small skirmishes, and 
they managed, also, to have droves of cattle 
fall into their hands, from time to time, so 
as to supply them with food. The Persians 
were quite elated with these indications that 
the tide of fortune was about to turn in their 
favor. 

While things were in this state, there ap- 
peared one day at the Persian camp a mes- 
senger from the Scythians, who said that he 



THE RETREAT FROM SCYTHIA. 163 

had some presents from the Scythian chief 
for Darius. The messenger was admitted, 
and allowed to deliver his gifts. The gifts 
proved to be a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five 
arrows. The Persians asked the bearer of 
these strange offerings what tiie Scythians 
meant by them. He replied that he had no 
explanations to give. His orders were, he 
said, to deliver the presents and then return ; 
and that they must, accordingly, find out the 
meaning intended, by the exercise of their 
own ingenuity. 

When the messenger had retired, Darius 
and the Persians consulted together, to de- 
termine what so strange a communication 
could mean. They could not, however, come 
to any satisfactory decision. Darius said 
that he thought the three animals might 
probably be intended to denote the three 
kingdoms of nature to which the said animals 
respectively belonged, viz., the earth, the air, 
and the water; and as the giving up of 
weapons was a token of submission, the 
whole might mean that the Scythians were 
now ready to give up the contest, and 
acknowledge the right of the Persians to 
supreme and universal dominion. 

The officers, however, did not generally 
concur in this opinion. They saw no indica- 
tions, they said, of any disposition on the 
part of the Scythians to surrender. They 
thought it quite as probable that the com- 
munication was meant to announce to those 
who received it threats and deiiance, as to 



164 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

express conciliation and submission. "It 
may mean," said one of them, " that, unless 
you can fly like a bird into the air, or hide 
like a mouse in the ground, or bury your- 
selves, like the frog, in morasses and fens, 
you cannot escape our arrows." 

There was no means of deciding positively 
between these contradictory interpretations, 
but it soon became evident that the former 
of the two was very far from being correct ; 
for, soon after the present was received, the 
Scythians were seen to be drawing up their 
forces in array, as if preparing for battle. 
The two months had expired, and they had 
reason to suppose that the party at the bridge 
had withdrawn, as they had promised to do. 
Darius had been so far weakened by his 
harassing marches, and the manifold priva- 
tions and sufferings of his men, that he felt 
some solicitude in respect to the result of a 
battle, now that it seemed to be drawing 
near, although such a trial of strength had 
been the object which he had been, from the 
beginning, most eager to secure. 

The two armies were encamped at a moder- 
ate distance from each other, with a plain, 
partly wooded, between them. While in 
this position, and before any hostile action 
was commenced by either party, it was ob- 
served from the camp of Darius that sud- 
denly a great tumult arose from the Scythian 
lines. Men were seen rushing in dense 
crowds this way and that over the plain, 
with shouts and outcries, which, however, 



THE RETREAT FROM SCYTHIA. 165 

had in them no expression of anger or fear, 
but rather one of gaiety and pleasure. 
Darius demanded what the strange tumult 
meant. Some messengers were sent out to 
ascertain the cause, and on their return they 
reported that the Scythians were hunting a 
hare, which had suddenly made its appear- 
ance. The hare had issued from a thicket, 
and a considerable portion of the army, of- 
ficers and soldiers, had abandoned their ranks 
to enjoy the sport of pursuing it, and were 
running impetuously, here and there, across 
the plain, filling the air with shouts of 
hilarity. 

" They do indeed despise us," said Darius, 
" since, on the eve of a battle, they can lose 
all thoughts of us and of their danger, and 
abandon their posts to hunt a hare ! " 

That evening a council of war w T as held. 
It was concluded that the Scythians must 
be very confident and strong in their posi- 
tion, and that, if a general battle were to be 
hazarded, it would be very doubtful what 
would be the result. The Persians concluded 
unanimously, therefore, that the wisest plan 
would be for them to give up the intended 
conquest, and retire from the country- 
Darius accordingly proceeded to make his 
preparations for a secret retreat. 

He separated all the infirm and feeble por- 
tion of the army from the rest, and informed 
them that he was going that night on a short 
expedition with the main body of the troops, 
and that, while he was gone, they were to 



166 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

remain and defend the camp. He ordered 
the men to build the camp fires, and to make 
them larger and more numerous than com- 
mon, and then had the asses tied together 
in an unusual situation, so that they should 
keep up a continual braying. These sounds, 
heard all the night, and the light of the 
camp fires, were to lead the Scythians to be- 
lieve that the whole body of the Persians 
remained, as usual, at the encampment, and 
thus to prevent all suspicion of their flight. 

Toward midnight, Darius marched forth 
in silence and secrecy, with all the vigorous 
and able-bodied forces under his command, 
leaving the weary, the sick, and the infirm 
to the mercy of their enemies. The long 
column succeeded in making good their re- 
treat, without exciting the suspicions of the 
Scythians. They took the route which they 
supposed would conduct them most directly 
to the river. 

When the troops which remained in the 
camp found, on the following morning, that 
they had been deceived and abandoned, they 
made signals to the Scythians to come to 
them, and, when they came, the invalids sur- 
rendered themselves and the camp to their 
possession. The Scythians then, imme- 
diately, leaving a proper guard to defend 
the camp, set out to follow the Persian army. 
Instead, however, of keeping directly upon 
their track, they took a shorter course, which 
would lead them more speedily to the river. 
The Persians, being unacquainted with the 



THE RETREAT FROM SCYTHIA. 167 

country, got involved in fens and morasses, 
and other difficulties of the way, and their 
progress was thus so much impeded that the 
Scythians reached the river before them. 

They found the Ionians still there, al- 
though the two months had fully expired. 
It is possible that the chiefs had received 
secret orders from Darius not to hasten their 
departure, even after the knots had all been 
united ; or perhaps they chose, of their own 
accord, to await their sovereign's return. 
The Scythians immediately urged them to 
be gone. " The time has expired," they 
said, "and you are no longer under any 
obligation to wait. Return to your own 
country, and assert your own independence 
and freedom, which you can safely do if you 
leave Darius and his armies here." 

The Ionians consulted together on the sub- 
ject, doubtful, at first, what to do. They 
concluded that they would not comply with 
the Scythian proposals, while yet they de- 
termined to pretend to comply with them, 
in order to avoid the danger of being at- 
tacked. They accordingly began to take 
the bridge to pieces, commencing on the 
Scythian side of the stream. The Scy- 
thians, seeing the work thus going on, left 
the ground, and marched back to meet the 
Persians. The armies, however, fortunately 
for Darius, missed each other, and the Per- 
sians arrived safely at the river, after the 
Scythians had left it. They arrived in the 
night, and the advanced guard, seeing no 



168 



DARIUS THE GREAT. 



appearance of the bridge on the Scythian 
side, supposed that the Ionians had gone. 
They shouted long and loud on the shore, 
and at length an Egyptian, who was cele- 
brated for the power of his voice, succeeded 
in making the Ionians hear. The boats 
were immediately brought back to their 
positions, the bridge was reconstructed, and 
Darius's army recrossed the stream. 

The Danube being thus safely crossed, the 
army made the best of its way back through 
Thrace, and across the Bosporus into Asia, 
and thus ended Darius's great expedition 
against the Scythians. 





CHAPTER X. 



THE STORY OF HISTLEUS. 



The nature of the government which was 
exercised, in ancient times by a royal despot 
like Darius, and the character of the measures 
and management to which he was accus- 
tomed to resort to gain his political ends, 
are, in many points, very strikingly illus- 
trated by the story of Histiaeus. 

Histiasus was the Ionian chieftain who had 
been left in charge of the bridge of boats 
across the Danube when Darius made his 
incursion into Scythia. When, on the fail- 
ure of the expedition, Darius returned to 
the river, knowing, as he did, that the two 
months had expired, he naturally felt a con- 
siderable degree of solicitude lest he should 
find the bridge broken up and the vessels 
gone, in which case his situation would be 
very desperate, hemmed in, as he would 
have been, between the Scythians and the 
river. His anxiety was changed into terror 
when his advanced guard arrived at the bank 
and found that no signs of the bridge were 
to be seen. It is easv to imagine what, un- 
der these circumstances, must have been the 

169 



170 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

relief and joy of all the army, when they 
heard friendly answers to their shouts, com- 
ing, through the darkness of the night, over 
the waters of the river, assuring them that 
their faithful allies were still at their posts, 
and that they themselves would soon be in 
safety. 

Darius, though he was governed by no 
firm and steady principles of justice, was 
still a man of many generous impulses. He 
was grateful for favors, though somewhat 
capricious in his modes of requiting them. 
He declared to Histiasus that he felt under 
infinite obligations to him for his persever- 
ing fidelity, and that, as soon as the army 
should have safely arrived in Asia, he would 
confer upon him such rewards as would 
evince the reality of his gratitude. 

On his return from Scy thia, Darius brought 
back the whole of his army over the Danube, 
thus abandoning entirely the country of the 
Scythians ; but he did not transport the 
whole body across the Bosporus. He left a 
considerable detachment of troops, under 
the command of one of his generals, named 
Megabyzus, in Thrace, on the European side, 
ordering Megabyzus to establish himself 
there, and to reduce all the countries in that 
neighborhood to his sway. Darius then 
proceeded to Sardis, which was the most 
powerful and wealthy of his capitals in that 
quarter of the world. At Sardis, he was, as 
it were, at home again, and he accordingly 
took an early opportunity to send for His- 



THE STORY OF HISTI.EUS. 171 

tiaeus, as well as some others who had ren- 
dered him special services in his late cam- 
paign, in order that he might agree with 
them in respect to their reward. He asked 
Histiaeus what favor he wished to receive. 

Histaeus replied that he was satisfied, on 
the whole, with the position which he al- 
ready enjoyed, w T hich was that of king or 
governor of Miletus, an Ionian city south of 
Sardis, and on the shores of thciEgean Sea.* 
He should be pleased, however, he said, if 
the king would assign him a certain small 
territory in Thrace, or, rather, on the borders 
between Thrace and Macedonia, near the 
mouth of the Kiver Strymon. He wished 
to build a city there. The king immediately 
granted this request, which was obviously 
very moderate and reasonable. He did not, 
perhaps, consider that this territory, being 
in Thrace, or in its immediate vicinity, came 
within the jurisdiction of Megabyzus, whom 
he had left in command there, and that the 
grant might lead to some conflict between 
the two generals. There was special danger 
of jealousy'and disagreement between them, 
for Megabyzus was a Persian, and Histiaeus 
was a Greek. 

Histiaeus organized a colony, and, leaving 
a temporary and provisional government at 
Miletus, he proceeded along the shores of 
the ^Egean Sea to the spot assigned him, 
and began to build his city. As the locality 

* For these places, see the map facing page 172. 



172 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

was beyond the Thracian frontier, and at a 
considerable distance from the headquar- 
ters of Megabyzus, it is very probable that 
the operations of Histiaeus would not have 
attracted the Persian general's attention for 
a considerable time, had it not been for a 
very extraordinary and peculiar train of 
circumstances, which led him to discover 
them. The circumstances were these : 

There was a nation or tribe called the 
Paeonians, who inhabited the valley of the 
Strymon, which river came down from the 
interior of the country and fell into the sea 
near the place where Histiaaus was building 
his city. Among the Paaonian chieftains 
there were two who wished to obtain the 
government of the country, but they were 
not quite strong enough to effect their object. 
In order to weaken the force which was 
opposed to them they conceived the base 
design of betraying their tribe to Darius, 
and inducing him to make them captives. 
If their plan should succeed, a considerable 
portion of the population would be taken 
away, and they could easily, they supposed, 
obtain ascendency over the rest. In order 
to call the attention of Darius to the sub- 
ject, and induce him to act as they desired, 
they resorted to the following stratagem. 
Their object seems to have been to lead 
Darius to undertake a campaign against 
their countrymen, by showing him what 
excellent and valuable slaves they would 
make. 



THE STOKY OF HISTLEUS. 173 

These two chieftains were brothers, and 
they had a very beautiful sister ; her form 
was graceful and elegant, and her counte- 
nance lovely. They brought this sister with 
them to Sardis when Darius was there. 
They dressed and decorated her in a very 
careful manner, but yet in a style appropriate 
to the condition of a servant ; and then one 
day, when the king was sitting in some 
public place in the city, as was customary 
with Oriental sovereigns, they sent her to 
pass along the street before him, equipped 
in such a manner as to show that she was 
engaged in servile occupations. She had a 
jar, such as was then used for carrying water, 
poised upon her head, and she was leading 
a horse by means of a bridle hung over her 
arm. Her hands, being thus not required 
either for the horse or for the vessel, were 
employed in spinning, as she walked along, 
by means of a distaff and spindle. 

The attention of Darius was strongly 
attracted to the spectacle. The beautv of 
the maiden, the novelty and strangeness of 
her costume, the multiplicity of her avoca- 
tions, and the ease and grace with which she 
performed them, all conspired to awaken 
the monarch's curiosity. He directed one 
of his attendants to follow her and see where 
she should go. The attendant did so. The 
girl went to the river. She watered her 
horse, filled her jar and placed it on her 
head, and then, hanging the bridle on her 
arm again, she returned through the same 



174 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

streets, and passed the king's palace as be- 
fore, spinning as she walked along. 

The interest and curiosity of the king was 
excited more than ever by the reappearance 
of the girl and by the report of his mes- 
senger. He directed that she should be 
stopped and brought into his presence. She 
came; and her brothers, who had been 
watching the whole scene from a convenient 
spot near at hand, joined her and came too. 
The king asked them who they were. They 
replied that they were Paeonians. He wished 
to know where they lived. " On the banks 
of the River Strymon," they replied, " near 
the confines of Thrace." He next asked 
whether all the women of their country 
were accustomed to labor, and were as in- 
genious, and dexterous, and beautiful as 
their sister. The brothers replied that they 
were. 

Darius immediately determined to make 
the whole people slaves. He accordingly 
despatched a courier with the orders. The 
courier crossed the Hellespont, and proceeded 
to the encampment of Megabyzus in Thrace. 
He delivered his despatches to the Persian 
general, commanding him to proceed im- 
mediately to Pasonia, and there to take the 
whole community prisoners, and bring them 
to Darius in Sardis. Megabyzus, until this 
time, had known nothing of the people 
whom he was thus commanded to seize. 
He, however, found some Thracian guides 
who undertook to conduct him to their ter- 



THE STORY OF HISTLEUS. 175 

ritory ; and then, taking with him a suf- 
ficient force, he set out on the expedition. 
The Paeonians heard of his approach. Some 
prepared to defend themselves ; others fled 
to the mountains. The fugitives escaped, 
but those who attempted to resist were 
taken. Megabyzus collected the unfortu- 
nate captives, together with their wives and 
children, and brought them down to the 
coast to embark them for Sardis. In doing 
this, he had occasion to pass by the spot 
where Histiaeus was building his city, and 
it was then, for the first time, that Mega- 
byzus became acquainted w T ith the plan. 
Histiaeus was building a wall to defend his 
little territory on the side of the land. Ships 
and galleys were going and coming on the 
side of the sea. Everything indicated that 
the work was rapidly and prosperously ad- 
vancing. 

Megabyzus did not interfere with the 
work ; but, as soon as he arrived at Sardis 
with his captives, and had delivered them to 
the king, he introduced the subject of His- 
tiaeus's city, and represented to Darius that 
it would be dangerous to the Persian inter- 
ests to allow such an enterprise to go on. 
" He will establish a strong post there," said 
Megabyzus, " by means of which he will ex- 
ercise a great ascendency over all the neigh- 
boring seas. The place is admirably situated 
for a naval station, as the countr} r in the 
vicinity abounds with all the materials for 
building and equipping ships. There are 

lo —Darius 



176 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

also mines of silver in the mountains near, 
from which he will obtain a great supply of 
treasure. By these means he will become so 
strong in a short period of time, that, after 
vou have returned to Asia, he will revolt 
from your authority, carrying with him, 
perhaps, in his rebellion, all the Greeks of 
Asia Minor." 

The king said that he was sorry that he 
had made the grant, and that he would re- 
voke it without delay. 

Megabyzus recommended that the king 
should not do this in an open or violent 
manner, but that he should contrive some 
way to arrest the progress of the undertak- 
ing without any appearance of suspicion or 
displeasure. 

Darius accordingly sent for Hi stilus to 
come to him at Sardis, saying that there 
was a service of great importance on which 
he wished to employ him. Histiaaus, of 
course, obeyed such a summons with eager 
alacrity. When he arrived, Darius ex- 
pressed great pleasure at seeing him once 
more, and said that he had constant need of 
his presence and his counsels. He valued, 
above all price, the services of so faithful a 
friend, and so sagacioas and trusty an ad- 
viser. He was now, he said, going to Susa, 
and he wished HistiaBus to accompany him 
as his privy counselor and confidential 
friend. It would be necessary, Darius 
added, that he should give up his govern- 
ment of Miletus, and also the city in Thrace 



THE STORY OF HISTIiEUS. 177 

which he had begun to build ; but he should 
be exalted to higher honors and dignities at 
Susa in their stead. He should have apart- 
ments in the king's palace, and live in great 
luxury and splendor. 

Histiasus was extremely disappointed and 
chagrined at this announcement. He was 
obliged, however, to conceal his vexation and 
submit to his fate. In a few days after this, 
he set out, with the rest of Darius's court, 
for the Persian capital, leaving a nephew, 
whose name was Aristagoras, as governor 
of Miletus in his stead. Darius, on the 
other hand, committed the general charge 
of the whole coast of Asia Minor to Arta- 
phernes, one of his generals. Artaphernes 
was to make Sardis his capital. He had 
not only the general command of all the 
provinces extending along the shore, but also 
of all the ships, and galleys, and other naval 
armaments which belonged to Darius on the 
neighboring seas. Aristagoras, as governor 
of Miletus, was under his general jurisdic- 
tion. The two officers were, moreover, ex- 
cellent friends. Aristagoras was, of course, 
a Greek, and Artaphernes a Persian. 

Among the Greek islands situated in the 
iEgean Sea, one of the most wealthy, im- 
portant, and powerful at that time was 
JSaxos. It was situated in the southern part 
of the sea, and about midway between the 
shores of Asia Minor and Greece. It hap- 
pened that, soon after Darius had returned 
from Asia Minor to Persia, a civil war broke 



178 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

out in that island, in which the common 
people were on one side and the nobles on 
the other. The nobles were overcome in 
the contest, and fled from the island. A 
party of them landed at Miletus, and called 
upon Aristagoras to aid them in regaining 
possession of the island. 

Aristagoras replied that he would very 
gladly do it if he had the power, but that 
the Persian forces on the whole coast, both 
naval and military, were under the com- 
mand of Artaphernes at Sardis. He said, 
however, that he was on very friendly 
terms witji Artaphernes, and that he would, 
if the Naxians desired it, apply to him for 
his aid. The J^axians seemed very grateful 
for the interest which Aristagoras took in 
their cause, and said that they would com- 
mit the whole affair to his charge. 

There was, however, much less occasion 
for gratitude than there seemed, for Arista- 
goras was very far from being honest and 
sincere in his offers of aid. He perceived, 
immediately on hearing the fugitives' story, 
that a very favorable opportunity was open- 
ing for him to add Naxos, and perhaps even 
the neighboring islands, to his own govern- 
ment. It is always a favorable opportunity 
to subjugate a people when their power of 
defense and of resistance is neutralized by 
dissensions with one another. It is a device 
as old as the history of mankind, and one re- 
sorted to now as often as ever, for ambitious 
neighbors to interpose in behalf of the 



THE STOUY OF HISTLffiFS. 179 

weaker party, in a civil war waged in a coun- 
try which they wish to make their own, and, 
beginning with a war against a part, to end 
by subjugating the whole. This was Aris- 
tagoras's plan. He proposed it to Arta- 
phernes, representing to him that a very 
favorable occasion had occurred for bringing 
the Greek islands of the iEgean Sea under the 
Persian dominion. Kaxos once possessed, 
all the other islands around it would follow, 
he said, and a hundred ships would make the 
conquest sure. 

Artaphernes entered very readily and very 
warmly into the plan. He said that he 
would furnish two hundred instead of one 
hundred galleys. He thought it was neces- 
sary, however, first to consult Darius, since 
the affair was one of such importance ; and 
besides, it was not best to commence the 
undertaking until the spring. He would 
immediately send a messenger to Darius to 
ascertain his pleasure, and, in the mean time, 
as he did not doubt that Darius would fully 
approve of the plan, he would have all neces- 
sary preparations made, so that everything 
should be in readiness as soon as the proper 
season for active operations should arrive. 

Artaphernes was right in anticipating his 
brother's approval of the design. The mes- 
senger returned from Susa with full au- 
thority from the king for the execution of the 
project. The ships were built and equipped, 
and everything was made ready for the ex- 
pedition. The intended destination of the 



180 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

armament was, however, kept a profound 
secret, as the invaders wished to surprise 
the people of Eaxos when off their guard. 
Aristagoras was to accompany the expedi- 
tion as its general leader, while an officer 
named Megabates, appointed b y Artaphernes 
for this purpose, was to take command of 
the fleet as a sort of admiral. Thus there 
were two commanders — an arrangement 
which almost always, in such cases, leads 
to a quarrel. It is a maxim in war that 
one bad general is better than two good ones. 

The expedition sailed from Miletus ; and, 
in order to prevent the people of Naxos 
from being apprised of their danger, the re- 
port had been circulated that its destination 
was to be the Hellespont. Accordingly, 
when the fleet sailed, it turned its course to 
the northward, as if it were really going to 
the Hellespont. The plan of the commander 
was to stop after proceeding a short dis- 
tance, and then to seize the first opportunity 
afforded by a wind from the north to come 
down suddenly upon Naxos, before the 
population should have time to prepare for 
defense. Accordingly, when they arrived 
opposite the island of Chios, the whole fleet 
came to anchor near the land. The ships 
were all ordered to be ready, at a moment's 
warning, for setting sail ; and, thus situated, 
the commanders were waiting for the wind 
to change. 

Megabates, in going his rounds among the 
fleet while things were in this condition, 



THE STORY OF HISTIiEUS. 181 

found one vessel entirely abandoned. The 
captain and crew had all left it, and had gone 
ashore. They were not aware, probably 
how urgent was the necessity that they 
should be every moment at their posts. The 
captain of this galley was a native of a small 
town called Cnydus, and, as it happened, 
was a particular friend of Aristagoras. His 
name was Syclax. Megabates, as the com- 
mander of the fleet, was very much incensed 
at finding one of his subordinate officers so 
derelict in duty. He sent his guards in pur- 
suit of him; and when Syclax was bro$£ht 
to his ship, Megabates ordered his head to 
be thrust out through one of the small port- 
holes intended for the oars, in the side of 
the ship, and then bound him in that posi- 
tion — his head appearing thus to view, in 
the sight of all the fleet, while his body re- 
mained within the vessel. " I am going to 
keep him at his post," said Megabates, u? and 
in such a way that every one can see that he 
is there." 

Aristagoras was much distressed at see- 
ing his friend suffering so severe and dis- 
graceful a punishment. He went to Mega- 
bates and requested the release of the pris- 
oner, giving, at the same time, what he 
considered satisfactory reasons for his hav- 
ing been absent from his vessel. Megabates, 
however, was not satisfied, and refused to 
set Syclax at liberty. Aristagoras then 
told Megabates that" he mistook his posi- 
tion in supposing that he was master of 



182 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

the expedition, and could tyrannize over 
the men in that manner, as he pleased. " I 
will have you understand," said he, " that I 
am the commander in this campaign, and 
that Artaphernes, in making you the sailing- 
master of the fleet, had no intention that 
you should setup your authority over mine." 
So saying, he went away in a rage, and 
released Syclax from his durance with his 
own hands. 

It was now the turn of Megabates to be 
enraged. He determined to defeat the ex- 
pedition. He sent immediately a secret 
messenger to warn the Naxians of their ene- 
mies' approach. The ISTaxians immediately 
made effectual preparations to defend them- 
selves. The end of it was, that, when the 
fleet arrived, the island was prepared to re- 
ceive it, and nothing could be done. Aris- 
tagoras continued the siege four months ; 
but inasmuch as, during all this time, Mega- 
bates did everything in his power to circum- 
vent and thwart every plan that Arista- 
goras formed, nothing was accomplished. 
Finally, the expedition was broken up, and 
Aristagoras returned home, disappointed and 
chagrined, all his hopes blasted, and his own 
private finances thrown into confusion by the 
great pecuniary losses which he himself had 
sustained. He had contributed very largely, 
from his own private funds, in fitting out 
the expedition, fully confident of success, 
and of ample reimbursement for his ex- 
penses as the consequence of it. 



THE STORY OF HISTLEUS. 183 

He was angry with himself, and angry 
with Megabates, and angry with Artapner- 
nes. He presumed, too, that Megabates 
would denounce him to Artaphernes, and, 
through him, to Darius, as the cause of the 
failure of the expedition. A sudden order 
might come at any moment, directing that 
he should be beheaded. He began to con- 
sider the expediency of revolting from the 
Persian power, and making common cause 
with the Greeks against Darius. The 
danger of such a step was scarcely less than 
that of remaining as he was. While he was 
pondering these momentous questions in his 
mind, he was led suddenly to a decision by 
a very singular circumstance, the proper 
explaining of which requires the story to 
return, for a time, to Histiaaus at Susa. 

Histiaeus was very ill at ease in the pos- 
session of his forced elevation and grandeur 
at Susa. He enjoyed great distinction there, 
it is true, and a life of ease and luxury, but 
he wished for independence and authority. 
Pie was, accordingly, very desirous to get 
back- to his former" sphere of activity and 
power in Asia Minor. After revolving in 
his mind the various plans which occurred 
to him for accomplishing this purpose, he at 
last decided on inducing Aristagoras to re- 
volt in Ionia, and then attempting to per- 
suade Darius to send him on to quell the re- 
volt. When once in Asia Minor, he would 
join the rebellion, and bid Darius defiance. 

The first thing to be done was to contrive 



184 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

some safe and secret v/a,y to communicate 
with Aristagoras. This he effected in the 
following manner : There was a man in his 
court who was afflicted with some malady 
of the eyes. Histiaeus told him that if he 
would put himself under his charge he could 
effect a cure. It would be necessary, he 
said, that the man should have his head 
shaved and scarified ; that is, punctured with 
a sharp instrument, previously dipped in 
some medicinal compound. Then, after 
some further applications should have been 
made, it would be necessary for the patient 
to go to Ionia, in Asia Minor, where there 
was a physician who would complete the cure. 

The patient consented to this proposal. 
The head was shaved, and Histiasus, while 
pretending to scarify it, pricked into the 
skin — as sailors tattoo anchors on their arms 
— by means of a needle and a species of ink 
which had probably no great medicinal vir- 
tue, the words of a letter to Aristagoras, in 
which he communicated to him fully, though 
very concisely, the particulars of his plan. 
He urged Aristagoras to revolt, and prom- 
ised that, if he would do so, he would come 
on, himself, as soon as possible, and, under 
pretense of marching to suppress the rebel- 
lion, he would really join and aid it. 

As soon as he had finished pricking this 
treasonable communication into the patient's 
skin, he carefully enveloped the head in 
bandages, which, he said, must on no ac- 
count be disturbed. He kept the man shut 



THE STORY OF HISTIiETJS. 185 

up, besides, in the palace, until the hair 
had grown, so- as effectually to conceal the 
writing, and then sent him to Ionia to have 
the cure perfected. On his arrival at Ionia 
he was to find Aristagoras, who would do 
what further was necessary. Histiaeus con- 
trived, in the mean time, to send word to 
Aristagoras by another messenger, that, as 
soon as such a patient should present him- 
self, Aristagoras was to shave his head. He 
did so, and the communication appeared. 
We must suppose that the operations on the 
part of Aristagoras for the purpose of com- 
pleting the cure consisted, probably, in prick- 
ing in more ink, so as to confuse and obliter- 
ate the writing. 

Aristagoras was on the eve of throwing off 
the Persian authority when he received this 
communication. It at once decided him to 
proceed. He organized his forces and com- 
menced his revolt. As soon as the news of 
this rebellion reached Susa, Histiasus feigned 
great indignation, and earnestly entreated 
Darius to commission him to go and suppress 
it. He was confident, he said, that he could 
do it in a very prompt and effectual manner. 
Darius was at first inclined to suspect that 
Histiaeus was in some way or other implicated 
in the movement ; but these suspicions were 
removed by the protestations which Histiaeus 
made, and at length he gave him leave to 
proceed to Miletus, commanding him, how- 
ever, he return to Susa again as soon as he 
should have suppressed the revolt. 



186 DABIUS THE GREAT. 

When Histiseus arrived in Ionia he joined 
Aristagoras, and the two generals, leaguing 
with them various princes and states of 
Greece, organized a very extended and dan- 
gerous rebellion, which it gave the troops of 
Darius infinite trouble to subdue. We can- 
not here give an account of the incidents 
and particulars of this war. For a time the 
rebels prospered, and their cause seemed 
likely to succeed ; but at length the tide 
turned against them. Their towns were 
captured, their ships were taken and de- 
stroyed, their armies cut to pieces. Histigeus 
retreated from place to place, a wretched 
fugitive, growing more and more distressed 
and destitute every day. At length, as he 
was flying from a battle-field, he arrested 
the arm of a Persian, who was pursuing him 
with his weapon upraised, by crying out 
that he was Histiseus the Milesian. The 
Persian, hearing this, spared his life, but took 
him prisoner, and delivered him to Artapher- 
nes. Histiseus begged very earnestly that 
Artaphernes would send him to Darius alive, 
in hopes that Darius would pardon him in 
consideration of his former services at the 
bridge of the Danube. This was, however, 
exactly what Artaphernes wished to prevent ; 
so he crucified the wretched Histiaeus at 
Sardis, and then packed his head in salt and 
sent it to Darius. 




CHAPTER XL 



THE INVASION OF GREECE AND THE BATTLE 
OF MARATHON. 

In the history of a great military conquer- 
or, there seems to be often some one great 
battle which in importance and renown 
eclipses all the rest. In the case of Hannibal it 
was the battle of Cannae, in that of Alexander 
the battle of Arbela. Caesar's great conflict 
was at Pharsalia, Napoleon's at Waterloo. 
Marathon was, in some respects, Darius's 
Waterloo. The place is a beautiful plain, 
about twelve miles north of the great city of 
Athens. The battle was the great final con- 
test between Darius and the Greeks, which, 
both on account of the awful magnitude of 
the conflict, and the very extraordinary cir- 
cumstances w^hich attended it, has always 
been greatly celebrated among mankind. 

The whole progress of the Persian empire, 
from the time of the first accession of Cyrus 
to the throne, was toward the westward, till 
it reached the confines of Asia on the shores 
of the iEgean Sea. AU the shores and islands 
of this sea were occupied by the states and 
the cities of Greece. The population of the 
whole region, both on the European and 

187 



188 DAKIUS THE GBEAT. 

Asiatic shores, spoke the same language, and 
possessed the same vigorous, intellectual, and 
elevated charactor. Those on the Asiatic 
side had been conquered by Cyrus, and their 
countries had been annexed to the Persian 
empire. Darius had wished very strongly, 
at the commencement of his reign, to go on 
in this work of annexation, and had sent his 
party of commissioners to explore the 
ground, as is related in a preceding chapter. 
'He had, however, postponed the execution 
of his plans, in order first to conquer the 
Scythian countries north of Greece, think- 
ing, probably, that this would make the sub- 
sequent conquest of Greece itself more easy. 
By getting a firm foothold in Scythia, he 
would, as it were, turn the flank of the 
Grecian territories, which would tend to 
make his final descent upon them more 
effectual and sure. 

This plan, however, failed ; and yet, on 
his retreat from Scythia, Darius did not 
withdraw his armies wholly from the Euro- 
pean side of the water. He kept a large 
force in Thrace, and his generals there were 
gradually extending and strengthening their 
power, and preparing for still greater con- 
quests. They attempted to extend their do- 
minion, sometimes by negotiations, and some- 
times by force, and they were successful and 
unsuccessful by turns, whichever mode they 
employed. 

One very extraordinary story is told of an 
attempted negotiation with Macedon, made 



THE INVASION OF GREECE. 189 

with a view of bringing that kingdom, if 
possible, under the Persian dominion, with- 
out the necessity of a resort to force. The 
commanding general of Darius's armies in 
Thrace, whose name, as was stated in the 
last chapter, was Megabyzus, sent seven Per- 
sian officers into Macedon, not exactly to 
summon the Macedonians, in a peremptory 
manner, to surrender to the Persians, nor, 
on the other hand, to propose a voluntary 
alliance, but for something between the two. 
The communication was to be in the form 
of a proposal, and yet it was to be made in 
the domineering and overbearing manner 
with which the tyrannical and the strong 
often make proposals to the weak and de- 
fenseless. 

The seven Persians went to Macedon, 
which, as will be seen from the map, was west 
of Thrace, and to the northward of the other 
Grecian countries. Amyntas, the king of 
Macedon, gave them a very honorable re- 
ception. At length, one clay, at a feast to 
which they were invited in the palace of 
Amyntas, they became somewhat excited 
with wine, and asked to have the ladies of 
the court brought into the apartment. They 
wished " to see them," they said. Amyntas 
replied that such a procedure was entirely 
contrary to the usages and customs of their 
court ; but still, as he stood somewhat in awe 
of his visitors, or, rather of the terrible power 
which the delegation represented, and 
wished by every possible means to avoid 



190 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

provoking a quarrel with them, he consent- 
ed to comply with their request. The ladies 
were sent for. They came in, reluctant and 
blushing, their minds excited by mingled 
feelings of indignation and shame. 

The Persians, becoming more and more 
excited and imperious under the increasing 
influence of the wine, soon began to praise 
the beauty of these new guests in a coarse 
and free manner, which overwhelmed the 
ladies with confusion, and then to accost them 
familiarly and rudely, and to behave toward 
them, in other respects, with so much im- 
propriety, as to produce great alarm and in- 
dignation among all the king's household. 
The king himself was much distressed, but 
he was afraid to act decidedly. His son, a 
young man of great energy and spirit, ap- 
proached his father with a countenance and 
manner expressive of high excitement, and 
begged him to retire from the feast, and leave 
him, the son, to manage the affair. Amy ntas 
reluctantly allowed himself to be persuaded 
to go, giving his son many charges, as he 
went away, to do nothing rashly or violently. 
As soon as the king was gone, the prince 
made an excuse for having the ladies retire 
for a short time, saying that they should 
soon return. The prince conducted them to 
their apartment, and then selecting an equal 
number of tall and smooth-faced boys, he 
disguised them to represent the ladies, and 
gave each one a dagger, directing him to 
conceal it beneath his robe. These counter- 



THE INVASION OF GKEECE. 191 

feit females were then introduced to the as- 
sembly in the place of those who had retired. 
The Persians did not detect the deception. 
It was evening, and, besides, their faculties 
were confused with the effects of the wine. 
They approached the supposed ladies as 
they had done before, with rude familiarity ; 
and the boys, at a signal made by the prince, 
when the Persians were wholly off their 
guard, stabbed and killed every one of them 
on the spot. 

Megabyzus sent an ambassador to inquire 
what became of his seven messengers ; but 
the Macedonian prince contrived to buy this 
messenger off by large rewards, and to induce 
him to send back some false but plausible 
story to satisfy Megabyzus. Perhaps Mega- 
b}^zus would not have been so easily satisfied 
had it not been that the great Ionian rebellion 
under Aristagoras and Histiaeus, as described 
in the last chapter, broke out soon after, and 
demanded his attention in another quarter 
of the realm. 

The Ionian rebellion postponed, for a time, 
Darius's designs on Greece, but the effect of 
it was to make the invasion more certain and 
more terrible in the end ; for Athens, which 
was at that time one of the most important 
and powerful of the Grecian cities, took a 
part in that rebellion against the Persians. 
The Athenians sent forces to aid those of 
Aristagoras and Histiaeus, and in the course 
of the war, the combined army took and 
burned the city of Sardis. When this news 

14— Darius 



192 DABIUS THE GKEAT. 

reached Darius, he. was excited to a perfect 
frenzy of resentment and indignation against 
the Athenians for coming thus into his own 
dominions to assist rebels, and there destroy- 
ing one of his most important capitals. 
He uttered the most violent and terrible 
threats against them, and, to prevent his 
anger from getting cool before the prepara- 
tions should be completed for vindicating it, 
he made an arrangement, it was said, for 
having a slave call out to him eveiy day at 
table, " Remember the Athenians ! " 

It was a circumstance favorable to Darius's 
designs against the states of Greece that 
they were not united among themselves. 
There was no general government under 
which the whole naval and military force 
of that country could be efficiently com- 
bined, so as to be directed, in a concentrated 
and energetic form, against a common enemy. 
On the other hand, the several cities formed, 
with the territories adjoining them, so many 
separate states, more or less connected, it is 
true, by confederations and alliances, but 
still virtually independent, and often hostile 
to each other. Then, besides these external 
and international quarrels, there was a great 
deal of internal dissension. The monarchi- 
cal and the democratic principle were all 
the time struggling for the mastery. Mili- 
tary despots were continually rising to 
power in the various cities, and after they 
had ruled, for a time, over their subjects 
with a rod of iron, the people would rise in 



THE INVASION OF GREECE. 193 

rebellion and expel them from their thrones. 
These revolutions were continually taking 
place, attended, often, by the strangest and 
most romantic incidents, which evinced, on 
the part of the actors in them, that ex- 
traordinary combination of mental sagacity 
and acumen with childish and senseless 
superstition so characteristic of the times. 

It is not surprising that the populace often 
rebelled against the power of these royal 
despots, for they seem to have exercised 
their power, when their interests or their 
passions excited them to do it, in the most 
tyrannical and cruel manner. One of them, 
it was said, a king of Corinth, whose name 
was Periander, sent a messenger, on one oc- 
casion, to a neighboring potentate — with 
whom he had gradually come to entertain 
very friendly relations — to inquire by what 
means he could most certainly and perma- 
nently secure the continuance of his power. 
The king thus applied to gave no direct 
reply, but took the messenger out into his 
garden, talking with him by the way about 
the incidents of his journey, and other in- 
different topics. He came, at length, to a 
field where grain was growing, and as he 
walked along, he occupied himself in cutting 
off, with his sword, every head of the grain 
which raised itself above the level of the 
rest. After a short time he returned to the 
house, and finally dismissed the messenger 
without giving him any answer whatever to 
the application that he had made. The 



194 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

messenger returned to Periander, and re- 
lated what had occurred. " I understand 
his meaning," said Periander. " I must con- 
trive some way to remove all those who, by 
their talents, their influence, or their power, 
rise above the general level of the citizens." 
Periander began immediately to act on this 
recommendation. Whoever, among the 
people of Corinth, distinguished himself 
above the rest, was marked for destruction. 
Some were banished, some were slain, and 
some were deprived of their influence, and 
so reduced to the ordinary level, by the con- 
fiscation of their property, the lives and 
fortunes of all the citizens of the state being 
wholly in the despot's hands. 

This same Periander had a wife whose 
name was Melissa. A very extraordinary 
tale is related respecting her, which, though 
mainly fictitious, had a foundation, doubt- 
less, in fact, and illustrates very remarkably 
the despotic tyranny and the dark supersti- 
tion of the times. Melissa died and was 
buried ; but her garments, for some reason 
or other, were not burned, as was usual in 
such cases. Now, among the other oracles 
of Greece, there was one where departed 
spirits could be consulted. It was called 
the oracle of the dead. Periander, having 
occasion to consult an oracle in order to find 
the means of recovering a certain article of 
value which was lost, sent to this place to 
call up and consult the ghost of Melissa. 
The ghost appeared, but refused to answer 



THE INVASION OF GREECE. 195 

the question put to her, saying, with fright 
ful solemnity, 

" I am cold ; I am cold ; I am naked and 
cold. My clothes were not burned ; I am 
naked and cold." 

When this answer was reported to Perian- 
der, he determined to make a great sacrifice 
and offering, such as should at once appease 
the restless spirit. He invited, therefore, a 
general assembly of the women of Corinth 
to witness some spectacle in a temple, and 
when they were convened, he surrounded 
them with his guards, seized them, stripped 
them of most of their clothing, and then let 
them go free. The clothes thus taken were 
then all solemnly burned, as an expiatory 
offering, with invocations to the shade of 
Melissa. 

The account adds, that when this was 
done, a second messenger was despatched to 
the oracle of the dead, and the spirit, now 
clothed and comfortable in its grave, an- 
swered the inquiry, informing Periander 
where the lost article might be found. 

The rude violence which Periander re- 
sorted to in this case seems not to have been 
dictated by any particular desire to insult 
or injure the women of Corinth, but was re- 
sorted to simply as the easiest and most 
convenient way of obtaining what he needed. 
He wanted a supply of valuable and costly 
female apparel, and the readiest mode of 
obtaining it was to bring together an as- 
sembly of females dressed for a public 



196 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

occasion, and then disrobe them. The case 
only shows to what an extreme and absolute 
supremacy the lofty and domineering spirit 
of ancient despotism attained. 

It ought, however, to be related, in justice 
to these abominable tyrants, that they often 
evinced feelings of commiseration and kind- 
ness ; sometimes, in fact, in very singular 
ways. There was, for example, in one of 
the* cities, a certain family that had obtained 
the ascendency over the rest of the people, and 
had held it for some time as an established 
aristocracy, taking care to preserve their rank 
and power from generation to generation, 
by intermarrying only with one another. 
At length, in one branch of the family, there 
grew up a young girl named Labda, who 
had been a cripple from her birth, and, on 
account of her deformity, none of the nobles 
would marry her. A man of obscure birth, 
however, one of the common people, at 
length took her for his wife. His name was 
Eetion. One day, Eetion went to Delphi to 
consult an oracle, and as he was entering the 
temple, the Pythian* called out to him, say- 
ing that a stone should proceed from Labda 
which should overwhelm tyrants and usurp- 
ers, and free the state. The nobles, when 
they heard of this, understood the prediction 
to mean that the destruction of their power 
was, in some way or other, to be effected 
by means of Labda' s child, and they deter- 

* For a full account of these oracles, see the history 
of Cyrus the Great, 



THE INVASION OF GBEECE. 197 

mined to prevent the fulfilment of the proph- 
ecy by destroying the babe itself so soon as 
it should be born. 

They accordingly appointed ten of their 
number to go to the place where Eetion lived 
and kill the child. The method which they 
were to adopt was this : They were to ask 
to see the infant on their arrival at the house, 
and then it was agreed that whichever of 
the ten it was to whom the babe was handed, 
he should dash it down upon the stone floor 
with all his force, by which means it would, 
as they supposed, certainly be killed. 

This plan being arranged, the men went 
to the house, inquired with hypocritical 
civility after the health of the mother, and 
desired to see the child. It was accordingly 
brought to them. The mother put it into 
the hands of one of the conspirators, and 
the babe looked up into his face and smiled. 
This mute expression of defenseless and con- 
fiding innocence touched the murderer's 
heart. He could not be such a monster as 
to dash such an image of trusting and happy 
helplessness upon the stones. He looked 
upon the child, and then gave it into the 
hands of the one next to him, and he gave it 
to the next, and thus it passed through the 
hands of all the ten. No one was found 
stern and determined enough to murder it, 
and at last they gave the babe back to its 
mother and went away. 

The sequel of this story was, that the 
conspirators, when they reached the gate, 



198 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

stopped to consult together, and, after many- 
mutual criminations and recriminations, each 
impugning the courage and resolution of the 
rest, and all joining in special condemnation 
of the man to whom the child had at first 
been given, they went back again, deter- 
mined, in some way or other, to accomplish 
their purpose. But Labda had, in the mean 
time, been alarmed at their extraordinary 
behavior, and had listened, when they stopped 
at the gate, to hear their conversation. 
She hastily hid the babe in a corn measure ; 
and the conspirators, after looking in every 
part of the house in vain, gave up the search, 
supposing that their intended victim had 
been hastily sent away. They went home, 
and not being willing to acknowledge that 
their resolution had failed at the time of 
trial, they agreed to say that their under- 
taking had succeeded, and that the child had 
been destroyed. The babe lived, however, 
and grew up to manhood, and then, in ful- 
filment of the prediction announced by the 
oracle, he headed a rebellion against the 
nobles, deposed them from their power, and 
reigned in their stead. 

One of the worst and most reckless of the 
Greek tyrants of whom we have been speak- 
ing was Hippias of Athens. His father, 
Pisistratus, had been hated all his life for 
his cruelties and his crimes ; and when he 
died, leaving two sons, Hippias and Hippar- 
chus, a conspiracy was formed to kill the 
sons, and thus put an end to the dynasty. 



THE INVASION OF GREECE. 199 

Hipparchus was killed, but Hippias escaped 
the danger, and seized the government him- 
self alone. He began to exercise his power 
in the most cruel and wanton manner, part- 
ly under the influence of resentment and 
passion, and partly because he thought his 
proper policy was to strike terror into the 
hearts of the people as a means of retaining 
his dominion. One of the conspirators by 
whom his brother had been slain accused 
Hippias's warmest and best friends as his 
accomplices in that deed, in order to revenge 
himself on Hippias by inducing him to de- 
stroy his own adherents and supporters. 
Hippias fell into the snare ; he condemned 
to death all whom the conspirator accused, 
and his reckless soldiers executed bis friends 
and foes together. When any protested 
their innocence, he put them to the torture 
to make them confess their guilt. Such in- 
discriminate cruelty only had the effect to 
league the whole population of Athens 
against the perpetrator of it. There was at 
length a general insurrection against him, 
and he was dethroned. He made his escape 
to Sardis, and there tendered his services to 
Artaphernes, offering to conduct the Persian 
armies to Greece, and aid them in getting 
possession of the country, on condition that, 
if they succeeded, the Persians would make 
him the governor of Athens. Artaphernes 
made known these offers to Darius, and they 
were eagerly accepted. It was, however, 
very impolitic to accept them. The aid 



200 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

which the invaders could derive from the 
services of such a guide were far more than 
counterbalanced by the influence which his 
defection and the espousal of his cause by 
the Persians would produce in Greece. It 
banded the Athenians and their allies to- 
gether in the most enthusiastic and deter- 
mined spirit of resistance, against a man 
who had now added the baseness of treason 
to the wanton wickedness of tyranny. 

Besides these internal dissensions between 
tae people of the several Grecian states and 
their kings, there were contests between one 
state and another, which Darius proposed to 
take advantage of in his attempts, to con- 
quer the country. There was one such war 
in particular, between Athens and the island 
of ^E^ina, on the effects of which, in aiding 
him in his operations against the Athenians, 
Darius placed great reliance. yEgina was a 
large and populous island not far from 
Athens. In accounting for the origin of the 
quarrel between the two states, the Greek 
historians relate the following marvelous 
story : 

yEgina, as will be seen from the map, was 
situated in the middle of a bay, southwest 
from Athens. On the other side of the bay, 
opposite from Athens, there was a city, near 
the shore, called Epidaurus. It happened 
that the people, of Epidaurus were at one 
time suffering from famine, and they sent a 
messenger to the oracle at Delphi to inquire 
what they should do to obtain relief. The 



THE INVASION OF GREECE. 201 

Pythian answered that they must erect two 
statues to certain goddesses, named Damia 
and Auxesia, and that then the famine would 
abate. They asked whether they were to 
make the statues of brass or of marble. 
The priestess replied, " Of neither, but of 
wood." They were, she said, to use for the 
purpose the wood of the garden olive. 

This species of olive was a sacred tree, 
and it happened that, at this time, there 
were no trees of the kind that were of suf- 
ficient size for the purpose intended except 
at Athens ; and the Epidaurians, accordingly, 
sent to Athens to obtain leave to supply 
themselves with wood for the sculptor by 
cutting down one of the trees from the 
sacred grove. The Athenians consented to 
this, on condition that the Epidaurians would 
offer a certain yearly sacrifice at two temples 
in Athens, which they named. This sacri- 
fice, they seemed to imagine, would make 
good to the city whatever of injury their 
religious interests might suffer from the loss 
of the sacred tree. The Epidaurians agreed 
to the condition ; the tree was felled ; blocks 
from it, of proper size, were taken to Epi- 
daurus, and the statues were carved. Thev 
were set up in the city with the usual so- 
lemnities, and the famine soon after disap- 
peared. 

Not many years after this, a war, for 
some cause or other, broke out between 
Epidaurus and JEgina. The people of . Egina 
crossed the water in a fleet of galleys, landed 



202 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

at Epiclaurus, and, after committing various 
ravages, they seized these images, and bore 
them away in triumph as trophies of their 
victory. They set them up in a public place 
in the middle of their own island, and in- 
stituted games and spectacles around them, 
which they celebrated with great festivity 
and parade. The Epidaurians, having thus 
lost their statues, ceased to make the annual 
offering at Athens which they had stipulated 
for, in return for receiving the wood from 
which the statues were carved. The Athe- 
nians complained. The Epidaurians replied 
that they had continued to make the offer- 
ing as long as they had kept the statues; 
but that now, the statues being in other 
hands, they were absolved from the obliga- 
tion. The Athenians next demanded the 
statues themselves of the people of ^Egina. 
They refused to surrender them. The 
Athenians then invaded the island, and pro- 
ceeded to the spot where the statues had 
been erected. They had been set up on 
massive and heavy pedestals. The Athe- 
nians attempted to get them down, but 
could not separate them from their fasten- 
ings. They then changed their plan, and 
undertook to move the pedestals too, by 
dragging them with ropes. They were ar- 
rested in this undertaking by an earthquake, 
accompanied by a solemn and terrible sound 
of thunder, which warned them that they 
were provoking the anger of Heaven. 

The statues, too, miraculouslv fell on 

7 7 * 



THE INVASION OF GREECE. 208 

their knees, and remained fixed in that pos- 
ture ! 

The Athenians, terrified at these porten- 
tous signs, abandoned their undertaking, and 
fled toward the shore. They were, however, 
intercepted by the people of ^Egina, and 
some allies whom they had hastily summoned 
to their aid, and the whole party was de- 
stroyed except one single man. He escaped. 
This single fugitive, however, met with a 
worse fate than that of his comrades. He 
went to Athens, and there the wives and 
sisters of the man who had been killed 
thronged around him to hear his story. 
They were incensed that he alone had 
escaped, as if his flight had been a sort of 
betrayal and desertion of his companions. 
They fell upon him, therefore, with one ac- 
cord, and pierced and wounded him on all 
sides with a sort of pin, or clasp, which they 
used as a fastening for their dress. They 
finally killed him. 

The Athenian magistrates were unable to 
bring any of the perpetrators of this crime 
to conviction and punishment ; but a law 
was made, in consequence of the occurrence, 
forbidding the use of that sort of fastening 
for the dress of all the Athenian women for- 
ever after. The people of iEgina, on the 
other hand, rejoiced and gloried in the deed 
of the Athenian women, and they made the 
clasps which were worn upon their island 
of double size, in honor of it. 

The war, thus commenced between Athens 



204 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

and JEgina, went on for a long time, increas- 
ing in bitterness and cruelty as the injuries 
increased in number and magnitude which 
the belligerent parties inflicted on each 
other. 

Such was the state of things in Greece 
when Darius organized his great expedition 
for the invasion of the country. He as- 
sembled an immense armament, though he 
did not go forth himself to command it. 
He placed the whole force under the charge 
of a Persian general named Datis. A con- 
siderable part of the army which Datis was 
to command was raised in Persia ; but 
orders had been sent on that large acces- 
sions to the army, consisting of cavalry, foot 
soldiers, ships, and seamen, and every other 
species of military force, should be raised in 
all the provinces of Asia Minor, and be ready 
to join it at various places of rendezvous. 

Datis commenced his march at Susa with 
the troops which had been collected there, 
and proceeded westward till he reached the 
Mediterranean at Cilicia, w T hich is at the 
northeast corner of that sea. Here large 
re-enforcements joined him ; and there was 
also assembled at this point an immense 
fleet of galleys, which had been provided to 
convey the troops to the Grecian seas. The 
troops embarked, and the fleet advanced 
along the southern shores of Asia Minor to 
the ^Egean Sea, where they turned to the 
northward toward the island of Samos, 
which had been appointed as a rendezvous. 



THE INVASION OF GREECE. 205 

At Samos they were joined by still greater 
numbers coming from Ionia, and the various 
provinces and islands on that coast that were 
already under the Persian dominion. When 
they were ready for their final departure, 
the immense fleet, probably one of the 
greatest and most powerful which had then 
ever been assembled, set sail, and steered 
their course to the northwest, among the 
islands of the Mgean Sea. As they moved 
slowly on, they stopped to take possession of 
such islands as came in their way. The 
islanders, in some cases, submitted to them 
without a struggle. In others, they made 
vigorous but perfectly futile attempts to re- 
sist. In others still, the terrified inhabitants 
abandoned their homes, and fled in dismay 
to the fastnesses of the mountains. The Per- 
sians destroyed the cities and towns whose 
inhabitants they could not conquer, and 
took the children from the most influential 
families of the islands which they did sub- 
due, as hostages to hold their parents to their 
promises when their conquerors should have 
gone. 

The mighty fleet advanced thus, by slow 
degrees, from conquest to conquest, toward 
the Athenian shores. The vast multitude 
of galleys covered the whole surface of the 
water, and as they advanced, propelled each 
by a triple row of oars, they exhibited to 
the fugitives who had gained the summits 
of the mountains the appearance of an im- 
mense swarm of insects creeping, by an al- 



206 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

most imperceptible advance, over the smooth 
expanse of the sea. 

The fleet, guided all the time by Hippias, 
passed on, and finally entered the strait be- 
tween the island of Euboea and the main- 
land to the northward of Athens. Here, 
after some operations on the island, the 
Persians finally brought their ships into a 
port on the Athenian side, and landed. 
Hippias made all the arrangements, and 
superintended the disembarkation. 

In the mean time, all was confusion and 
dismay in the city of Athens. The govern- 
ment, as soon as they heard of the approach 
of this terrible danger, had sent an express 
to the city of Sparta, asking for aid. The 
aid had been promised, but it had not yet 
arrived. The Athenians gathered together 
all the forces at their command on the north- 
ern side of the city, and were debati ng, the 
question, with great anxiety and earnest- 
ness, whether they should shut themselves 
up within the walls, and await the onset of 
their enemies there, or go forth to meet them 
on the way. The whole force which the 
Greeks could muster consisted of but about 
ten thousand men, while the Persian host con- 
tained over a hundred thousand. It seemed 
madness to engage in a contest on an open 
field against such an overwhelming disparity 
of numbers. A majority of voices were, ac- 
cordingly, in favor of remaining within the 
fortifications of the city, and awaiting an 
attack. 



THE INVASION OF GREECE. 207 

The command of the army had been in- 
trusted, not to one man, but to a commission 
of three generals, a sort of triumvirate, on 
whose joint action the decision of such a 
question devolved. Two of the three were 
in favor of taking a defensive position ; but 
the third, the celebrated Miltiades, was so 
earnest and so decided in favor of attacking 
the enemy themselves, instead of waiting to 
be attacked, that his opinion finally carried 
the day, and the other generals resigned 
their portion of authority into his hands, 
consenting that he should lead the Greek 
army into battle, if he dared to take the re- 
sponsibility of doing so. 

The two armies were at this time en- 
camped in sight of each other on the plain 
of Marathon, between the mountain and the 
sea. They were nearly a mile apart. The 
countless multitude of the Persians extended 
as far as the eye could reach, with long lines 
of tents in the distance, and thousands of 
horsemen on the plain, all ready for the 
charge. The Greeks, on the other hand, oc- 
cupied a small and isolated spot, in a com- 
pact form, without cavalry, without archers, 
without, in fact, any weapons suitable either 
for attack or defense, except in a close en- 
counter hand to hand. Their only hope of 
success depended on the desperate violence of 
the onset they were to make upon the vast 
masses of men spread out before them. On 
the one side were immense numbers, whose 
force, vast as it was, must necessarily be 

15— Darius 



208 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

more or less impeded in its operations, and 
slow. It was to be overpowered, therefore, 
if overpowered at all, by the utmost fierce- 
ness and rapidity of action — by sudden on- 
sets, unexpected and furious assaults, and 
heavy, vigorous, and rapid blows. Miltiades, 
therefore, made all his arrangements with 
reference to that mode of warfare. Such 
soldiers as the Greeks, too, were admirably 
adapted to execute such designs, and the im- 
mense and heterogeneous mass of Asiatic na- 
tions which covered the plain before them 
was exactly the body for such an experiment 
to be made upon. Glorying in their numbers 
and confident of victory, they were slowly ad- 
vancing, without the least idea that the little 
band before them could possibly do them any 
serious harm. They had actually brought 
with them, in the train of the army, some 
blocks of marble, with which they were go- 
ing to erect a monument of their victory, on 
the field of battle, as soon as the conflict was 
over ! 

At length the Greeks began to put them- 
selves in motion. As they advanced, they 
accelerated their march more and more, until 
just before reaching the Persian lines, when 
they began to run. The astonishment of the 
Persians at this unexpected and daring on- 
set soon gave place, first to the excitement 
of personal conflict, and then to universal 
terror and dismay ; for the headlong impet- 
uosity of the Greeks bore down all opposi- 
tion, and the desperate swordsmen cut their 




Darius, face. p. XUH 



The Battle of Marathon. 



THE INVASION OF GREECE. 209 

way through the vast masses of the enemy 
with a fierce and desperate fury that nothing 
could withstand. Something like a contest 
continued for some hours ; but, at the end of 
that time, the Persians were flying in all 
directions, every one endeavoring, by the 
track which he found most practicable for 
himself, to make his way to the ships on the 
shore. Vast multitudes were killed in this 
headlong flight; others became entangled 
in the morasses and fens, and others still 
strayed away, and sought, in their terror, a 
hopeless refuge in the defiles of the moun- 
tains. Those who escaped crowded in con- 
fusion on board their ships, and pushed off 
from the shore, leaving the whole plain 
covered with their dead and dying compan- 
ions. 

The Greeks captured an immense amount 
of stores and baggage, which, were of great 
cost and value. They took possession, too, 
of the marble blocks which the Persians had 
brought to immortalize their victory, and 
built with them a monument, instead, to 
commemorate their defeat. They counted 
the dead. Six thousand Persians, and only 
two hundred Greeks, were found. The 
bodies of the Greeks were collected together, 
and buried on the field, and an immense 
mound was raised over the grave. This 
mound has continued to stand at Marathon 
to the present day. 

The battle of Marathon was one of those 
great events in the history of the Iranian race 



210 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

which continue to attract, from age to age, 
the admiration of mankind. They who look 
upon war in all its forms, as only the per- 
petration of an unnatural and atrocious 
crime, which rises to dignity and grandeur 
only by the very enormity of its guilt can- 
not but respect the courage, the energy, and 
the cool and determined resolution with 
which the little band of Greeks went forth 
to stop the torrent of foes which all the 
nations of a whole continent had combined 
to pour upon them. The field has been 
visited in every age by thousands of trav- 
elers, who have upon the spot offered their 
tribute of admiration to the ancient heroes 
that triumphed there. The plain is found 
now, as of old, overlooking the sea, and the 
mountains inland towering above the plain. 
The mound, too, still remains, which was 
reared to consecrate the memory of the 
Greeks who fell. They who visit it stand 
and survey the now silent and solitary scene, 
and derive from the influence and spirit of 
the spot new strength and energy to meet 
the great difficulties and clangers of life which 
they themselves have to encounter. The 
Greeks themselves, of the present clay, not- 
withstanding the many sources of discour- 
agement and depression with which they 
have to contend, must feel at Marathon some 
rising spirit of emulation in contemplating 
the lofty mental powers and the undaunted 
spirit of their sires. Byron makes one of 
them sing, 



THE INVASION OF GREECE. 211 

"The mountains look on Marathon, 

And Marathon looks on the sea ; 
And musing there an hour alone, 

I dreamed that Greece might still be free: 
For, standing on the Persians' grave, 
I could not deem myself a slave." 



Ruins of the Grecian Mound at Marathon. 




CHAPTEK XII. 



THE DEATH OF DARIUS. 



The city of Athens and the plain of Mara- 
thon are situated upon a peninsula. The 
principal port by which the city was ordi- 
narily approached was on the southern shore 
of the peninsula, though the Persians had 
landed on the northern side. Of course, in 
their retreat from the field of battle, they 
fled to the north. "When they were beyond 
the reach of their enemies and fairly at sea, 
they were at first somewhat perplexed to 
d etermine what to do. Datis was extremely 
unwilling to return to Darius with the news 
of such a defeat. On the other hand, there 
seemed but little hope of any other result if 
he were to attempt a second landing. 

Hippias, their Greek guide, was killed in 
the battle. He expected to be killed, for 
his mind, on the morning of the battle, was 
in a state of great despondency and dejection. 
Until that time he had felt a strong and 
confident expectation of success, but his 
feelings had then been very suddenly 
changed. His confidence had arisen from 
the influence of a dream, his dejection from 
a cause more frivolous still : so that he was 

212 



THE DEATH OF DARIUS. 213 

equally irrational in Lis hope and in his de- 
spair. 

The omen which seemed to him to por- 
tend success to the enterprise in which lie 
had undertaken to act as guide, was merely 
that he dreamed one night that he saw, and 
spent some time in company, with his 
mother. In attempting to interpret this 
dream in the morning, it seemed to him that 
Athens, his native city, was represented by 
his mother, and that the vision denoted that 
he was about to be restored to Athens again. 
He was extremely elated at this supernatural 
confirmation of his hopes, and would have 
gone into the battle certain of victory, had 
it not been that another circumstance oc- 
curred at the time of the landing to blast his 
hopes. He had, himself, the general charge 
of the disembarkation. He stationed the 
ships at their proper places near the shore, 
and formed the men upon the beach as they 
landed. While he was thus engaged, stand- 
ing on the sand, he suddenly sneezed. He 
was an old man, and his teeth — those that 
remained — were loose. One of them was 
thrown out in the act of sneezing, and it fell 
into the sand. Hippias was alarmed at this 
occurrence, considering it a bad omen. lie 
looked a long time for the tooth in vain, 
and then exclaimed that all was over. The 
joining of his tooth to his mother earth was 
the event to which the dream referred, and 
there was now no hope of any further ful- 
filment of it. He went on mechanically, 



214 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

after this, in marshaling his men and pre- 
paring for battle, but his mind was oppressed 
with gloomy forebodings. He acted, in 
consequence, feebly and with indecision ; 
and when the Greeks explored the field 
on the morning after the battle, his body 
was found among the other mutilated and 
ghastly remains which covered the ground. 

As the Persian fleet moved, therefore, 
along the coast of Attica, they had no longer 
their former guide. They were still, how- 
ever, very reluctant to leave the country. 
They followed the shore of. the peninsula 
until they came to the promontory of Sunium, 
which forms the southeastern extremity of 
it. They doubled this cape, and then fol- 
lowed the southern shore of the peninsula 
until they arrived at the point opposite to 
Athens on that side. In the meantime, 
however, the Spartan troops which had been 
sent for to aid the Athenians in the contest, 
but which had not arrived in time to take 
part in the battle, reached the ground ; and 
the indications which the Persians observed, 
from the decks of their galleys, that the 
country was thoroughly aroused, and was 
everywhere ready to receive them, deterred 
them from making any further attempts to 
land. After lingering, therefore, a short 
time near the shore, the fleet directed its 
course again toward the coasts of Asia. 

The mind of Datis was necessarily very 
ill at ease. He dreaded the wrath of Darius ; 
for despots are very prone to consider mili- 



THE DEATH OF DARIUS. 215 

tary failures as the worst of crimes. The 
expedition had not, however, been entirely 
a failure. Datis had conquered many of the 
Greek islands, and he had with him, on 
board his galleys, great numbers of prison 
ers, and a vast amount of plunder which he 
had obtained from them. Still, the greatest 
and most important of the objects which 
Darius had commissioned him to accomplish 
had been entirely defeated, and he felt, ac- 
cordingly, no little anxiety in respect to the 
reception which he was to expect at Susa. 

One night he had a dream which greatly 
disturbed him. He awoke in the morning 
Avith an impression upon his mind, which he 
had derived from the dream, that some tem- 
ple had been robbed by his soldiers in the 
course of his expedition, and that the sacri- 
legious booty which had been obtained was 
concealed somewhere in the fleet. He im- 
mediately ordered a careful search to be in- 
stituted, in which every ship was examined. 
At length they found, concealed in one of 
the galleys, a golden statue of Apollo. 
Datis inquired what city it had been taken 
from. They answered from Delium. De- 
lium was on the coast of Attica, near the 
place where the Persians had landed, at the 
time of their advance on Marathon. Datis 
could not safely or conveniently go back 
there to restore it to its place. He deter- 
mined, therefore, to deposit it at Delos for 
safekeeping until it could be returned to its 
proper home. 



216 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

Delos was a small but very celebrated 
island near the center of the ^Egean Sea, 
and but a short distance from the spot where 
the Persian fleet was lying when Datis 
made this discovery. It was a sacred island, 
devoted to religious rites, and all contention, 
and violence, and, so far as was possible, all 
suffering and death, were excluded from it. 
The sick were removed from it ; the dead 
were not buried there ; armed ships and 
armed men laid aside their hostility to each 
other when they approached it. Belligerent 
fleets rode at anchor, side by side, in peace, 
upon the smooth waters of its little port, 
and an enchanting picture of peace, tran> 
quillity, and happiness was seen upon it& 
shores. A large natural fountain, or spring, 
thirty feet in diameter, and inclosed partly 
by natural rocks and partly by an artificial 
wall, issued from the ground in the center 
of the island, and sent forth a beautiful and 
fertilizing rill into a rich and happy valley, 
through which it meandered, deviously, for 
several miles, seeking the sea. There was a 
large and populous city near the port, and 
the whole island was adorned with temples, 
palaces, colonnades, and other splendid 
architectural structures, which made it the 
admiration of all mankind. All this mag- 
nificence and beauty have, however, long 
since passed away. The island is now silent, 
deserted, and desolate, a dreary pasture, 
where cattle browse and feed, with stupid 
indifference, among the ancient ruins. 



THE DEATH OP DARIUS. 217 

Nothing living remains of the ancient scene 
of grandeur and beauty but the fountain. 
That still continues to pour up its clear and 
pellucid waters with a ceaseless and eternal 
flo\\ r . 

It was to this Delos that Datis determined 
to restore the golden statue. lie took it on 
board his own galley, and proceeded with it, 
himself, to the sacred island. He deposited 
it in the great temple of Apollo, charging 
the priests to convey it, as soon as a Con- 
venient opportunity* should occur, to its 
proper destination at Delium. 

The Persian fleet, after this business was 
disposed of, set sail again, and pursued its 
course toward the coasts of Asia, where at 
length the expedition landed in safety. 

The various divisions of the army were 
then distributed in the different provinces 
where they respectively belonged, and Datis 
commenced his march with the Persian por- 
tion of the troops, and with his prisoners 
and plunder, for Susa, feeling, however, very 
uncertain how lie should be received on his 
arrival there. Despotic power is always 
capricious; and the character of Darius, 
which seems to have been naturally gener- 
ous and kind, and was rendered cruel and 
tyrannical only through the influence of the 
position in which he had been placed, was 
continually presenting the most opposite and 
contradictory phases. The generous ele- 
ments of it, fortunately for Datis, seemed 
to be in the ascendency w T hen the remnant 



218 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

of the Persian army arrived at Susa. Darius 
received the returning general without anger, 
and even treated the prisoners with human- 
ity. 

Before finally leaving the subject of this 
celebrated invasion, which was brought to 
an end in so remarkable a manner by the 
great battle of Marathon, it may be well to 
relate the extraordinary circumstances which 
attended the subsequent history of Miltiades, 
the great commander in that battle on the 
Greek side. Before the conflict, he seems 
to have had no official superiority over the 
other generals, but, by the resolute decision 
with which he urged the plan of giving the 
Persians battle, and the confidence and cour- 
age which he manifested in expressing his 
readiness to take the responsibility of the 
measure, he placed himself virtually at the 
head of the Greek command. The rest of 
the officers acquiesced in his pre-eminence, 
and, waiving their claims to an equal share 
of the authority, they allowed him to go 
foward and direct the operations of the day. 
If the day had been lost, Miltiades, even 
though he had escaped death upon the field, 
would have been totally and irretrievably 
ruined ; but as it was won, the result of the 
transaction was, that he was raised to the 
highest pinnacle of glory and renown. 

And yet in this, as in all similar cases, the 
question of success or of failure depended 
upon causes wholly be}^ond the reach of 
human foresight or control. The military 



THE DEATH OF DARIUS. 219 

commander who acts in such contingencies 
is compelled to stake everything dear to him 
on results which are often as purely hazard- 
ous as the casting of a die. 

The influence of Miltiades in Athens after 
the Persian troops were withdrawn was 
paramount and supreme. Finding himself 
in possession of this ascendency, he began 
to form plans for other military undertak- 
ings. It proved, in the end, that it would 
have been far better for him to have been 
satisfied with the fame which he had already 
acquired. 

Some of the islands in the iEgean Sea he 
considered as having taken part with the 
Persians in the invasion, to such an extent, 
at least, as to furnish him with a pretext for 
making war upon them. The one which he 
had specially in view, in the first instance, 
was Paros. Paros is a large and important 
island situated near the center of the south- 
ern portion of the ^Egean Sea. It is of an 
oval form, and is about twelve miles long. 
The surface of the land is beautifully diver- 
sified and very picturesque, while, at the 
same time, the soil is very fertile. In the 
days of Miltiades it was very wealthy end 
populous, and there was a large city, called 
also Paros, on the western coast of the 
island, near the sea. There is a modern town 
built upon the site of the former city, which 
presents a very extraordinary appearance, 
as the dwellings are formed, in a great mea- 
sure of materials obtained from the ancient 



220 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

ruins. Marble columns, sculptured capitals, 
and fragments of what were once magnifi- 
cent entablatures, have been used to con- 
struct plain walls, or laid in obscure and 
neglected pavements — all, however, still re- 
taining, notwithstanding their present deg- 
radation, unequivocal marks of the noble- 
ness of their origin. The quarries where the 
ancient Parian marble was obtained were 
situated on this island, not very far from the 
town. They remain to the present day in 
the same state in which the ancient workmen 
left them. 

In the time of Miltiades the island and 
the city of Paros were both very wealthy 
and very powerful. Miltiades conceived the 
design of making a descent upon the island, 
and levying an immense contribution upon 
the people, in the form of a fine, for what 
he considered their treason in taking 
part with the enemies of their countrymen. 
In order to prevent the people of Paros 
from preparing for defense, Miltiades in- 
tended to keep the object of his expedition 
secret for a time. He therefore simply 
proposed to the Athenians that they should 
equip a fleet and put it under his command. 
He had an enterprise in view, he said, the 
nature of which he could not particularly 
explain, but he was very confident of its 
success, and, if successful, he should return, 
in a short time, laden with spoils which 
would enrich the city, and amply reimburse 
the people for the expenses they would have 



THE DEATH OF DARIUS. 221 

incurred. The force which he asked for 
was a fleet of seventy vessels. 

So great was the popularity and influence 
which Miltiades had acquired by his victory 
at Marathon, that this somewhat extraordi- 
nary proposition was readily complied with. 
The fleet was equipped, and crews were 
provided, and the whole armament was 
placed under Miltiades's command. The 
men themselves who were embarked on 
board of the galleys did not know whither 
they were going. Miltiades promised them 
victory and an abundance of gold as their 
reward ; for the rest, they must trust, he 
said, to him, as he could not explain the 
actual destination of the enterprise without 
endangering its success. The men were all 
satisfied with these conditions, and the fleet 
set sail. 

When it arrived on the coast of Paros, 
the Parians were, of course, taken by sur- 
prise, but they made immediate preparations 
for a very vigorous resistance. Miltiades 
commenced a siege, and sent a herald to the 
city, demanding of them, as the price of 
their ransom, an immense sum of money, 
sa3ung, at the same time, that, unless they 
delivered up that sum, or, at least, gave se- 
curity for the payment of it, he would not 
leave the place until the city was captured, 
and, when captured, it should be wholly 
destroyed. The Parians rejected the de- 
mand, and engaged energetically in the 
work of completing and strengthening their 

16— Dn-ius 



222 DAE1US THE GREAT. 

defenses. They organized companies of 
workmen to labor during the night, when 
their operations would not be observed, in 
building new walls, and re-enforcing every 
weak or unguarded point in the line of the 
fortifications. It soon appeared that the 
Parians were making far more rapid prog- 
ress in securing their position than Miltiades 
was in his assaults upon it. Miltiades found 
that an attack upon a fortified island in the 
^Egean Sea was a different thing from 
encountering the undisciplined hordes of 
Persians on the open plains of Marathon. 
There it was a contest between concentrated 
courage and discipline on the one hand, and 
a vast expansion of pomp and parade on the 
other ; whereas no vv he found that the 
courage and discipline on his part were met 
by an equally indomitable resolution on the 
part of his opponents, guided, too, by an 
equally well-trained experience and skill. 
In a word, it was Greek against Greek at 
Paros, and Miltiades began at length to 
perceive that his prospect of success was 
growing very doubtful and dim. 

This state of things, of course, filled the 
mind of Miltiades with great anxiety and 
distress; for, after the promises which he 
had made to the Athenians, and the blind 
confidence which he had asked of them in 
proposing that they should commit the fleet 
so unconditionally to his command, he could 
not return discomfited to Athens without 
involving himself in the most absolute dis- 



THE DEATH OF DARIUS. 223 

grace. While he was in this perplexity, it 
happened that some of his soldiers took 
captive a Parian female, one day, among 
other prisoners. She proved to be a 
priestess, from one of the Parian temples. 
Her name was Timo. The thought occurred 
to Miltiades that, since all human means at 
his command had proved inadequate to 
accomplish ^ his end, he might, perhaps, 
through this captive priestess, obtain some 
superhuman aid. As she had been in the 
service of a Parian temple, she would 
naturally have an influence with the divini- 
ties of the place, or, at least, she would be 
acquainted with the proper means of pro- 
pitiating their favor. 

Miltiades, accordingly, held a private in- 
terview with Timo, and asked her what he 
should do to propitiate the divinities of Paros 
bo far as to enable him to gain possession of 
the city. She replied that she could easily 
point out the way, if he would but follow 
her instructions. Miltiades, overjoyed, prom- 
ised readily that he would do so. She then 
gave him her instructions secretly. "What 
they were is not known, except so far as 
they were revealed by the occurrence that 
followed. 

There was a temple consecrated to the god- 
dess Ceres near to the city, and so connected 
with it, it seems, as to be in some measure 
included within the defenses. The approach 
to this temple was guarded by a palisade. 
There were, however, gates which afforded 



224 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

access, except when they were fastened from 
within. Miltiades, in obedience to Thno's 
instructions, went privately, in the night, 
perhaps, and with very few attendants, to 
this temple. He attempted to enter by the 
gates, which he had expected, it seems, to 
find open. They were, however, fastened 
against him. He then undertook to scale 
the palisade. He succeeded in doing this, 
not, however, without difficulty, and then 
advanced toward the temple, in obedience 
to the instructions which he had received 
from Timo. The account states that the 
act, whatever it was, that Timo had directed 
him to perform, instead of being, as he sup- 
posed, a means of propitiating the favor of 
the divinity, was sacrilegious and impious ; 
and Miltiades, as he approached the temple, 
was struck suddenly with a mysterious and 
dreadful horror of mind, which wholly over- 
whelmed him. Eendered almost insane by 
this supernatural remorse and terror, he 
turned to fly. He reached the palisade, and, 
in endeavoring to climb over it, his precipi- 
tation and haste caused him to fall. His 
attendants ran to take him up. He was 
helpless and in great pain. They found he 
had dislocated a joint in one of his limbs. 
He received, of course, every possible atten- 
tion ; but, instead of recovering from the 
injury, he found that the consequences of it 
became more and more serious every day. 
In a word, the great conqueror of the Per- 
sians was now wholly overthrown, and lay 



THE DEATH OF DARIUS. 225 

moaning on his couch as helpless as a 
child. 

He soon determined to abandon the siege 
of Paros and return to Athens. He had 
been about a month upon the island, and 
had laid waste the rural districts, but, as the 
city had made good its defense against him, 
he returned without any of the rich spoil 
which he had promised. The disappoint- 
ment which the people of Athens experienced 
on his arrival, turned soon into a feeling of 
hostility against the author of the calamity. 
Miltiades found that the fame and honor 
which he had gained at Marathon were 
gone. They had been lost almost as suddenly 
as they had been acquired. The rivals 
and enemies who had been silenced by his 
former success were now brought out and 
made clamorous against him by his present 
failure. They attributed the failure to his 
own mismanagement of the expedition, and 
one orator, at length, advanced articles of im- 
peachment against him, on a charge of having 
been bribed by the Persians to make his siege 
of Paros only a feint. Miltiades could not 
defend himself from these criminations, for 
he was lying, at the time, in utter helplessness, 
upon his couch of pain. The dislocation of 
the limb had ended in an open wound, which 
at length, having resisted all the attempts 
of the physicians to stop its progress, had be- 
gun to mortify, and the life of the sufferer 
was fast ebbing away. His son Cimon did all 
in his power to save his father from both the 



226 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

dangers that threatened him. He defended 
his character in the public tribunals, and he 
watched over his person in his cell in the 
prison. These filial efforts were, however, 
in both cases unavailing. Miltiades was con- 
demned by the tribunal, and he died of his 
wound. 

The penalty exacted of him by the sen- 
tence was a very heavy fine. The sum 
demanded was the amount which the expe^ 
dition to Paros had cost the city, and which, 
as it has been lost through the agency of 
Miltiades, it was adjudged that he should 
refund. This sentence, as well as the treat- 
ment in general which Miltiades received 
from his countrymen, has been since consid- 
ered by mankind as very unjust and cruel. 
It was, however, only following out, some- 
what rigidly, it is true, the essential terms 
and conditions of a military career. It re- 
sults from principles inherent in the very 
nature of war, that we are never to look for 
the ascendency of justice and humanity in 
anything pertaining to it. It is always 
power, and not right, that determines pos- 
session ; it is success, not merit, that gains 
honors and rewards ; and they who assent to 
the genius and spirit of military rule thus 
far, must not complain if they find that, on 
the same principle, it is failure and not crime 
which brings condemnation and destruction. 

When Miltiades was dead, Cimon found 
that he could not receive his father's body 
for honorable interment unless he paid the 



THE DEATH OF DARIUS. 227 

fine. He had no means, himself, of doing 
this. He succeeded, however, at length, in 
raising the amount, by soliciting contribu- 
tions from the family friends of his father. 
He paid the fine into the city treasury, and 
then the body of the hero was deposited in 
its long home. 

The Parians were at first greatly in- 
censed against the priestess Timo, as it 
seemed to them that she had intended to 
betray the city to Miltiades. They wished 
to put her to death, but they did not dare 
to do it. It might be considered an impious 
sacrilege to punish a priestess. They ac- 
cordingly sent to the oracle at Delphi to 
state the circumstances of the case, and to 
inquire if they might lawfully put the priest- 
ess to death. She had been guilty, they 
said, of pointing out to an enemy the mode 
by which he might gain possession of their 
city ; and, what was worse, she had, in doing 
so," attempted to admit him to those solemn 
scenes and mysteries in the temple which it 
was not lawful for any man to behold. The 
oracle replied that the priestess must not be 
punished, for she had done no wrong. It 
had been decreed by the gods that Miltiades 
should be destroyed, and Timo had been 
employed by them as the involuntary in- 
strument of conducting him to his fate. _ The 
people of Paros acquiesced in this decision, 
and Timo was set free. 

But to return to Darius. His desire to 



228 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

subdue the Greeks and to add their country 
to his dominions, and his determination to 
accomplish his purpose, were increased and 
strengthened, not diminished, by the repulse 
which his army had met with at the first 
invasion. He was greatly incensed against 
the Athenians, as if he considered their 
courage and energy in defending their 
country an audacious outrage against him- 
self, and a crime. He resolved to organize 
a new expedition, still greater and more 
powerful than the other. Of this armament 
he determined to take the command himself 
in person, and to make the preparations for 
it on a scale of such magnitude as that the 
expedition should be worthy to be led by 
the great sovereign of half the world. He 
accordingly transmitted orders to -all the 
peoples, nations, languages, and realms, in 
all his dominions, to raise their respective 
quotas of troops, horses, ships, and muni- 
tions of war, and prepare to assemble at 
such place of rendezvous as he should desig- 
nate when all should be ready. 

Some years elapsed before these arrange- 
ments were matured, and when at last the 
time seemed to have arrived for carrying 
his plans into effect, he deemed it necessary, 
before he commenced his march, to settle 
the succession of his kingdom ; for he had 
several sons, who might each claim the 
throne, and involve the empire in disastrous 
civil wars in attempting to enforce their 
claims, in case he should never return. The 



THE DEATH OF DARIUS. 229 

historians say that there was a law of Persia 
forbidding the sovereign to leave the realm 
without previously fixing upon a successor. 
It is difficult to see, however, by what power 
or authority such a law could have been 
enacted, or to believe that monarchs like 
Darius would recognize an abstract obliga- 
tion to law of any kind, in respect to their 
own political action. There is a species of 
law regulating the ordinary dealings between 
man and man, that springs up in all com- 
munities, whether savage or civilized, from 
custom, and from the action of judicial 
tribunals, which the most despotic and 
absolute sovereigns feel themselves bound, 
so far as relates to the private affairs of 
their subjects, to respect and uphold ; but, 
in regard to their own personal and govern- 
mental acts and measures, they very seldom 
know any other authority than the impulses 
of their own sovereign will. 

Darius had several sons, among whom 
there were two who claimed the right to 
succeed their father on the throne. One 
was the oldest son of a wife whom Darius 
had married before he became king. His 
name was Artobazanes. The other was the 
son of Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, whom 
Darius had married after his accession to 
the throne. His name was Xerxes. Arto- 
bazanes claimed that he was entitled to be 
his father's heir, since he was his oldest son. 
Xerxes, on the other hand, maintained that, 
at the period of the birth of Artobazanes, 



230 DARIUS THE GREAT. 

Darius was not a king. He was then in a 
private station, and sons could properly 
inherit only what their fathers possessed at 
the time when they were born. He himself, 
on the other hand, was the oldest son which 
his father had had, being a king, and he was, 
consequently, the true inheritor of the king- 
dom. Besides, being the son of Atossa, he 
was the grandson of Cyrus, and the heredi- 
tary rights, therefore, of that great founder 
of the empire had descended to him. 

Darius decided the question in favor of 
Xerxes, and then made arrangements for 
commencing his march, with a mind full 
of the elation and pride which were awak- 
ened by the grandeur of his position and 
the magnificence of his schemes. These 
schemes, however, he did not live to exe- 
cute. He suddenly fell sick and died, just 
as he was ready to set out upon his ex- 
pedition, and Xerxes, his son, reigned in his 
stead. 

Xerxes immediately took command of the 
vast preparations which his father had made, 
and went on with the prosecution of the 
enterprise. The expedition which followed 
deserves, probably, in respect to the num- 
bers engaged in it, the distance which it 
traversed, the immenseness of the expenses 
involved, and the magnitude of its results, 
to be considered the greatest military under- 
taking which human ambition and power 
have ever attempted to effect. The narra- 
tive, however, both of its splendid adven- 



m 




Darius, face p. 2Ju 



The Tomb of Darius the Great. 



THE DEATH OF DARIUS. 231 

tures and of its ultimate fate, belongs to the 
history of Xerxes. 

The greatness of Darius was the greatness 
of position and not of character. lie was 
the absolute sovereign of nearly half the 
world, and, as such, was held up very con- 
spicuously to the attention of mankind, who 
gaze with a strong feeling of admiration 
and awe upon these vast elevations of 
power, as they do upon the summits of 
mountains, simply because they are high. 
Darius performed no great exploit, and he 
accomplished no great object while he lived ; 
and he did not even leave behind him any 
strong impressions of personal character. 
There is in his history, and in the position 
which lie occupies in the minds of men, 
greatness without dignity, success without 
merit, vast and long-continued power with- 
out effects accomplished or objects gained, 
and universal and perpetual renown without 
honor or applause. The world admire 
Caesar, Hannibal, Alexander, Alfred, and 
Napoleon for the deeds which they per- 
formed. They admire Darius only on ac- 
count of the elevation on which he stood. 
In the same lofty position, they would have 
admired, probably, just as much, the very 
horse whose neighing placed him there. 



ALTEMUS' 



Young People's Library. 



Prick, 50 Cents Each. 



ROBINSON CRUSOE: His Life and Strange Surprising 
Adventures. With 70 beautiful illustrations by Walter 
Paget. Arranged for young readers. 

"There exists no work, either of instruction or entertainment, 
which has been more generally read, and universally admired." 
— Walter Scott. 

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. With 42 

illustrations by John Tenniel. 

'• This is Carroll's immortal story." — Atheneeum. 
" The most delightful of children's stories. Elegant and deli- 
cious nonsense." — Saturday Review. 

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS AND WHAT 
ALICE FOUND THERE. (A companion to Alice in 
Wonderland.) With 50 illustrations by John Tenniel. 

' Not a whit inferior to its predecessor in grand extravagance of 
imagination, and delicious allegorical nonsense." — Quarterly 
Review. 

BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. With 50 full-page 

and text illustrations. 

Pilgrim's Progress is the most popular story book in the 
world. With the exception of the Bible it has been translated into 
more languages than any other book ever printed. 

A CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. With 72 full-page 

illustrations. 

Tells in simple language and in a form fitted for the hands of 
the younger members of the Christian flock, the tale of God's 
dealings with his Clios n People under the Old Dispensation, 
with its foreshadow ings of the coming of that Messia 1 who was 
to make all mankind one fold under one Shepherd. 



ALTfcMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE* S LIBRARY. 



A CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. With 49 illustrations. 

God has implanted in the infant's heart a desire to hear of Jesus, 
and children are early attracted and sweetly riveted by the won- 
derful Story of the Master from the Manger to the Throne. 

In this little book we have brought together from Scripture every 
incident, expression and description within the verge of their com- 
prehension, in the effort to weave them into a memorial garland of 
their Saviour. 

THE FABLES OF ^ESOP. Compiled from the best ac- 
cepted sources. With 62 illustrations. 

The fables of /Esop are among the very earliest compositions of 
this kind, and probably have never been surpassed for point and 
brevity, as well as for the practical good sense they display. In 
their grotesque grace, in their quaint humor, in their trust in the 
simpler virtues, in their insight into the cruder vices, in their inno- 
cence of the fact of sex, yEsop's Fables are as little children— and 
for that reason will ever find a home in the heaven of little chil- 
dren's souls. 

THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, or the Adventures of 
a Shipwrecked Family on an Uninhabited Island. With 
50 illustrations. 

A remarkable tale of adventure that will interest the boys and 
girls. The father of the family tells the tale and the vicissitudes 
through which he and his wife and children pass, the wonderful 
discoveries they make, and the dangers they encounter. It is a 
standard work of adventure that has the favor of all who have 
read it. 

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY 

OF AMERICA. With 70 illustrations. 

It is the duty of every American lad to know the story of Chris- 
topher Columbus. In this book is depicted the story of his life 
and struggles ; of his persistent solicitations at the courts of Eu- 
rope, and his contemptuous receptions by the learned Geographical 
Councils, until his final employment by Queen Isabella. Records 
the day-by-day journeyings while he was pursuing his aim and his 
perilous way over the shoreless ocean, until he " gave to Spain a 
New World." Shows his progress through Spain on the occasion 
of his first return, when he was received with rapturous demon- 
strations and more than regal homage. His displacement by the 



ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 



Odjeas, Ovandos and Bobadilas ; his last return in chains, and the 
story of his death in poverty and neglect. 

THE STORY OF EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERS 
IN AFRICA. With 80 illustrations. 

Records the adventures, privations, sufferings, trials, dangers 
and discoveries in developing the "Dark Continent,' from the 
early days of Bruce and Mungo Park down to Livingstone and 
Stanley and the heroes of our own times. 

The reader becomes carried away by conflicting emotions of 
wonder and sympathy, and feels compelled t ) pursue the story, 
which he cannot lay down. No present can be more acceptable 
than such a volume as this, where courage, intrepidity, resource 
and devotion are so pleasantly mingled. It is very fully illustra- 
ted with pictures worthy of the book. 

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS INTO SOME REMOTE RE- 
GIONS OF THE WORLD. With 50 illustrations. 

In description, even of the most common-place things, his power 
is often perfectly marvellous. Macaulay says of Swift : '• Under 
a plain garb and ungainly deportment were concealed some of thj 
choicest gifts that ever have been bestowed on any of the children 
of men — rare powers of observation, brilliant art, grotesque inven- 
tion, humor of the mo.t austere flavor, yet exquisitely delicious, 
eloquence singularly pure, manly and perspicuous."' 

MOTHER GOOSE'S RHYMES, JINGLES AND FAIRY 
TALES. With 300 illustrations. 

"In this edition an excellent choice has been made from the 
standard fiction ( f the little ones. The abundant pictures are well- 
drawn and graceful, the effect frequently striking and always deco- 
rative." — Critic. 

"Only to see the book is to wish to give it to every child one 
knows." — Queen. 

LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED 

STATES. Compiled from authoritative sources. With 

portraits of the Presidents ; and also of the unsuccessful 

candidates for the office; as well as the ablest of the 

Cabinet officers. 

This book should be in every home and school library. Tt tells, 
in an impartial way, the story of the political history of the United 
States, from the first Cons' itutional convention to the last Presi- 



ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 



dential nominations, it is just the book for intelligent boys, and it 
will help to make them intelligent and patriotic citizens. 

THE STORY OF ADVENTURE IN THE FROZEN 
SEA. With 70 illustrations. Compiled from authorized 

sources. 

We here have brought together the records of the attempts to 
reach the North Pole. Our object being to recall the stories of the 
early voyagers, and to narrate the recent efforts of gallant adven- 
turers of various nationalities to cross the " unknown and inacces- 
ible " threshold ; and to show how much can be accomplished by 
indomitable pluck and steady perseverance. Portraits and numer- 
ous illustrations help the narration. 

ILLUSTRATED NATURAL HISTORY. By the Rev. 
J. G. Wood. With 80 illustrations. 

Wood's Natural History needs no commendation. Its author 
has done more than any other writer to popularize the study. His 
work is known and admired overall the civilized world. The sales 
of his works in England and America have been enormous. The 
illustrations in this edition are entirely new, striking and life-like. 

A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By Charles 

Dickens. With 50 illustrations. 

Dickens grew tired of listening to his children memorizing the 
old fashioned twaddle that went under the name of English his- 
tory. He thereupon wrote a book, in his own peculiarly happy 
style, primarily for the educational advantage of his own children, 
but was prevailed upon to publish the work, and make its use gen- 
eral. Its success was instantaneous and abiding. 

BLACK BEAUTY; The Autobiography of a Horse. By 
Anna Sewell. With 50 illustrations. 

This NEW illustrated EDITION is sure to command attention. 
Wherever children are, whether boys or girls, there this Autobiog- 
raphy should be. It inculcates habits of kindness to all members 
of the animal creation. The literary merit of the book is excellent. 

THE ARABIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS. With 
50 illustrations. Contains the most favorably known of 
the stories. 

The text is somewhat abridged and edited for the young. It 
forms an excellent introduction to those immortal tales which have 
helped so long to keep the weary world young. 



ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 



ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES. By Hans Christian An- 
dersen. With 77 illustrations. 

The spirit of high moral teaching, and the delicacy of sentiment, 
feeling and expression that pervade these tales make these won- 
derful creations not only attractive to the young, but equally accept- 
able to those of mature years, who are able to understand their 
real significance and appreciate the depth of their meaning. 

GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES. With 50 illustrations. 

These tales of the Brothers Grimm have carried their names into 
every household of the civilized world. 

The Tales are a wonderful collection, as interesting, from a lit- 
erary point of view, as they are delightful as stories. 

GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR; A History for Youth. By 
Nathaniel Hawthorne. With 60 illustrations. 

The story of America from the landing of the Puritans to the 
acknowledgment without reserve of the Independence of the 
United States, told with all the elegance, simplicity, grace, clear- 
ness and force for which Hawthorne is conspicuously noted. 

FLOWER FABLES. By Louisa May Alcott. With colored 
and plain illustrations. 

A series of very interesting fairy tales by the most charming of 
American story-tellers. 

AUNT MARTHA'S CORNER CUPBOARD. By Mary 
and Elizabeth Kirby. With 60 illustrations. 

Stories about Tea, Coffee, Sugar, Rice and Chinaware, and 
other accessories of the well-kept Cupboard. A book full of in- 
terest for all the girls and many of the boys. 

WATER-BABIES; A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby. By 
Charles Kingsley. With 94 illustrations. 

" Come read me my riddle, each good little man ; 
If you cannot read it, no grown-up folk can." 

BATTLES OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. By 

Prescott Holmes. With 70 illustrations. 

A graphic and full history of the Rebellion of the American Col- 
onies from the yoke and oppression of England, with the causes 



6 ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 

that led thereto, and including an account of the second war with 
Great Britain, and the War with Mexico. 

BATTLES OF THE WAR FOR THE UNION. By 
Prescott Holmes. With 80 illustrations. 

A correct and impartial account of the greatest civil war in the 
annals of history. Both of these histories of American wars are 
a necessary part of the education of all intelligent American boys 
and girls. 

YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE WAR WITH 

SPAIN. By Prescott Holmes. With 89 illustrations. 

This history of our war with Spain, in 1898, presents in a plain, 
easy style the splendid achievements of our army and navy, and 
the prominent figures that came into the public view during that 
period. Its glowing descriptions, wealth of anecdote, accuracy cf 
statement and profusion of illustration make it a most desirable 
gift- book for young readers. 

HEROES OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. By 
Hartwell James. With 65 illustrations. 

The story of our navy is one of the most brilliant pages in the 
world's history. The sketches and exploits contained in this vol- 
ume cover our entire naval history from the days of the hone.-t, 
rough sailors cf Revolutionary times, with their cutlasses and 
boarding pike?, to the brief war of 1 898, when our superbly ap- 
pointed warships destroyed Spain's proud cruisers by the merci- 
less accuracy of their fire. 

MILITARY HEROES OF THE UNITED STATES. 
By Hartwell James. With 97 illustrations. 

In this volume the brave lives and heroic deeds t f our military 
heroes, from Paul Revere to Lawton, are told in the most captiva- 
ting manner. The material for the work has been gathered from 
the North and the Sou h alike. The volume presents all the im- 
portant facts in a manner enabling the young people of our united 
and prosperous land to easily become familiar with the command- 
ing figures that have arisen in our military history. 

UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; or Life Among the Lowly. By 
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. With 90 illustrations. 



ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 



The unfailing interest in the famous old st>ry suggested the need 
of an edition specially prepared for young readers, and elaborately 
illustrated. This edition completely fills that want. 

SEA KINGS AND NAVAL HEROES. By Hartwell 

James. With 50 illustrations. 

The .most famous sea battles of the world, with sketches of the 
lives, enterprises and achievements of men who have become fain 
ous in naval history. They are stories of brave lives in times of 
trial and danger, charmingly told for young people. 

POOR BOYS' CHANCES. By John Habberton. With 

50 illustrations. 

There is a fascination about the writings of the author of 
" Helen's Babies," from which none can escape. In this charm- 
ing \olume, Mr. Habberton tells the boys of America how they 
can attain the highest positions in the land, without the struggles 
and privations endured by poor boys who rose to eminence and 
fame in former times. 

ROMULUS, the Founder of Rome. By Jacob Abbott. 
With 49 illustrations. 

In a plain and connected narrative, the author tells the stories 
of the founder of Rome and his great ancestor, rEneas. These 
are of necessity somewhat legendary in character, but are pre- 
sented precisely as they have come down to us from ancient times. 
They are prefaced by an account of the life and inventions of Cad- 
mus, the " Father of the Alphabet," as he is often called. 

CYRUS THE GREAT, the Founder of the Persian Empire. 

By Jacob Abbott. With 40 illustrations. 

For nineteen hundred )ears, the story of the founder of the an- 
cient Persian empire has been read by every generation of man 
kind. The story of the life and actions of Cyrus, as told by the 
author, presents vivid pictures of the magnificence of a monarchy 
that rose about five hundred years before the Christian era, and 
rolled on in undisturbed magnitude and glory for many centuries. 

ADVENTURES IN TOYLAND. By Edith King Hull. 
With 70 illustrations by Alice B. Woodward. 

The sayings and doinjs of the dwellers in tovland, related by 
one of them to a dear little girl. It is a delightful book for chil- 
dren, and admirably illustrated. 



8 ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 

DARIUS THE GREAT, King of the Medes and Persians. 
By Jacob Abbott. With 34 illustrations. 

No great exploits marked the career of this monarch, who was 
at one time the absolute sovereign of nearly one-half of the world. 
He reached his high position by a stratagem, and left behind him 
no strong impressions of personal character, yet, the history of his 
life and reign should be read along with those of Cyrus, Csesar, 
Hannibal and Alexander. 

XERXES THE GREAT, King of Persia. By Jacob Ab- 
bott. With 39 illustrations. 

For ages the name of Xerxes has been associated in the minds 
of men with the idea of the highest attainable human magnificence 
and grandeur. He was the sovereign of the ancient Persian em- 
pire at the height of its prosperity and power. The invasion of 
Greece by the Persian hordes, the battle of Thermopylae, the burn- 
ing of Athens, and the defeat of the Persian galleys at Salamis are 
chapters of thrilling interest. 

THE ADVENTURES OF A BROWNIE. By Miss 
Mulock, author of John Halifax, Gentleman, etc. With 
18 illustrations. 

One of the best of Miss Murlock's charming stories for children. 
All the situations are amusing and are sure to please youthful 
readers. 

ALEXANDER THE GREAT, King of Macedon. By 

Jacob Abbott. With 51 illustrations. 

Born heir to the throne of Macedon, a country on the confines 
of Europe and Asia, Alexander crowded into a brief career of 
twelve years a brilliant series of exploits. The readers of to-day 
will find pleasure and profit in the history of Alexander the Great, 
a potentate before whom ambassadors and princes from nearly all 
the nations of the earth bowed in humility. 

PYRRHUS, King of Epirus. By Jacob Abbott. With 45 

illustrations. 

The story of Pyrrhus is one of the ancient narratives which has 
been told and retold for many centuries in the literature, eloquence 
and poetry of all civilized nations. While possessed of extraordi- 
nary ability as a military leader, Pyrrhus actually accomplished 
nothing, but did mischief on a gigantic scale. He was naturally 



ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 



of a noble and generous spirit, but only succeded in perpetrating 
crimes against the peace and welfare of mankind. 

HANNIBAL, the Carthaginian. By Jacob Abbott. With 
37 illustrations. 

Hannibal's distinction as a warripr was gained during the des- 
perate contests between Rome and Carthage, known as the Punic 
wars. Entering the scene when his country was engaged in peace- 
ful traffic with the various countries of the known world, he turned 
its energies into military aggression, conquest and war, becoming 
himself one of the greatest military heroes the world has ever 
known. 

MIXED PICKLES. By Mrs. E. M. Field. With 31 illus- 
trations by T. Pym. 

A remarkably entertaining story for young people. The reader 
is introduced to a charming little girl whose mishaps while trying 
to do good are very appropriately termed " Mixed Pickles." 

JULIUS C^SAR, the Roman Conqueror. By Jacob Ab- 
bott. With 44 illustrations. 

The life and actions of Julius Qesar embrace a period in Roman 
history beginning with the civil wars of Marius and Sylla and end- 
ing with the tragic death of Coesar Imperator. The work is an 
accurate historical account of the life and times of one of the great 
military figures in history, in fact, it is history itself, and as such is 
especially commended to the readers of the present generation. 

ALFRED THE GREAT, of England. By Jacob Abbott. 
With 40 illustrations. 

In a certain sense, Alfred appears in history as the founder of 
the British monarchy : his predecessors having governed more like 
savage chieftains than English kings. The work has a special 
value for young readers, for the character of Alfred was that of an 
honest, conscientious and far-seeing statesman. The romantic 
story of Godwin furnishes the concluding chapter of the volume. 

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, of England. By Jacob 
Abbott. With 43 illustrations. 

The life and times of William of Normandy have always been a 
fruitful theme for the historian. War and pillage and conquest 
were at least a part of the everyday business of men in both Eng- 



IO ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 

land and France : and the story of William as told by the author 
of this volume makes some of the most fascinating page, in his- 
tory. It is especially delightful to young reader^. 

HERNANDO CORTEZ, the Conqueror of Mexico. By 
Jacob Abbott. With 30 illustrations. 

In this volume the author gives vivid pictures of the wild and 
adventurous career of Cortez and his companions in the conque-t 
of Mexico. Many good motives were united with those of ques 
tionable character, in the prosecution of his enterprise, but in 
those days it was a matter of national ambition to enlarge the 
boundaries of nations and to extend their commerce at any cost. 
The. career of Cortez is one of absorbing interest. 

THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. By Miss Mulock. With 
24 illustrations. 

The author styles it "A Parable for Old and Young." It is in her 
happiest vein and delightfully interesting, especially to youthful 
readers. 

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. By Jacob Abbott. With 
45 illustrations. 

The story of Mary Stuart holds a prominent place in the present 
series of historical narrations. It has had many tellings, for the 
melancholy story of the unfortunate queen has always held a high 
place in the estimation of successive generations of readers. Her 
story is full of romance and pathos, and the reader is carried along 
by conflicting emotions <<f wonder and sympathy. 

QUEEN ELIZABETH, of England. By Jacob Abbott. 

With 49 illustrations. 

In strong contrast to the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, is that 
of Elizabeth, Queen of England. They were cousins, yet im- 
placable foes. Elizabeth's reign was in many ways a glorious one, 
and her successes gained her the applause of the world. The 
stirring tales of Drake, Hawkins and other famous mariners of 
her lime have been incorporated into the story of Elizabeth's life 
and reign. 

KING CHARLES THE FIRST, of England. By Jacob 
Abbott. With 41 illustrations. 

The well-known figures in the stormy reign of Charles T. are 
brought forward in this narrative of his life and times. It is his- 
tory told in the most fascinating manner, and embraces the early 



ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. II 

life of Charles ; the court of James I.; struggles between Charles 
and the Parliament; the Civil war; the trial and execution of the 
king. The narrative is impartial and holds the attention of the 
reader. 

KING CHARLES THE SECOND, of England. By Jacob 

Abbott. With 38 illustrations. 

Beginning with his infancy, the life of the " Merry Monarch " 
is related in the author's inimitable style. His reign was signal- 
ized by many disastrous events, besides those that related to his 
personal troubles and embarrassments. There were unfortunate 
wars ; naval defeats ; dangerous and disgraceful plots and con- 
spiracies. Trobule sat very lightly on the shoulders of Charles II., 
however, and the cares of state were easily forgotten in the society 
of his court and dogs. 

THE SLEEPY KING. By Aubrey Hopwood and Seymour 
Hicks. With 7 7 illustrations by Maud Trelawney. 

A charmingly-told Fairy Tale, full of delight and entertain- 
ment. The illustrations are original and striking, adding greatly 
to the interest of the text. 

MARIA ANTOINETTE, Queen of France. By John S. C. 

Abbott. With 42 illustrations. 

The tragedy of Maria Antoinette is one of the most mournful in 
the history of the world. " Her beauty dazzled the whole king- 
dom," says Lamartine. Her lofty and unbending spirit under 
unspeakable indignities and atrocities, enlists and holds the sympa- 
thies of the readers of to-day, as it has done in the past. 

MADAME ROLAND, A Heroine of the French Revolution. 

By Jacob Abbott. With 42 illustrations. 

The French 'Revolution developed few, if any characters more 
worthy of notice than that of Madame Roland. The absence of 
playmates, in her youth, inspired her with an insatiate thirst for 
knowledge, and books became her constant companions in every 
unoccupied hour. She fell a martyr to the tyrants of the French 
Revolution, but left behind her a career full of instruction that 
never fails to impress itself upon the reader. 

JOSEPHINE, Empress of France. By Jacob Abbott. With 
40 illustrations. 



12 ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 

Maria Antoinette beheld the dawn of the French Revolution ; 
Madame Roland perished under the lurid glare of its high noon ; 
Josephine saw it fade into darkness. She has been called the 
" Star of Napoleon ; " and it is certain that she added luster to 
his brilliance, and that her peisuasive influence was often exerted 
to win a friend or disarm an adversary. The lives of the Empress 
Josephine, of Maria Antoinette, and of Madame Roland are 
especially commended to young lady readers. 

TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE. By Charles and Mary 
Lamb. With 80 illustrations. 

The text is somewhat abridged and edited for young people, but 
a clear and definite outline of each play is presented. Such episodes 
or incidental sketches of character as are not absolutely necessary 
to the development of the tales are omitted, while the many moral 
lessons that lie in Shakespeare's plays and make them valuable in 
the training of the young are retained. The b 'ok is winning, help- 
ful and an effectual guide to the "inner shrine" of the great 
dramatist. 

MAKERS OF AMERICA. By Hartwell James. With 75 
illustrations. 

This volume contains attractive and suggestive sketches of the 
lives and deeds of men who illustrated some special phase in the 
political, religious or social life of our country, from its settlemnt 
to the close of the eighteenth century. It affords an opportunity 
for young readers to become easily familiar with these characters 
and their historical relations to the building of our Republic. An 
account of the discovery of America prefaces the work. 

A WONDER BOOK FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. By 

Nathaniel Hawthorne. With 50 illustrations. 

In this volume the genius of Hawthorne has shaped anew 
wonder tales that have been hallowed by an antiquity of two or 
three thousand years. Seeming " never to have been made" they 
are legitimate subjects for every age to clothe with its own fancy 
as to manners and sentiment, and its own views of morality. The 
volume has a charm fo old and young alike, for the author has 
not thought it necessary to " write downward " in order to meet 
the comprehension of children. 











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